


Ruby Potter

by hunter81095



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, RWBY
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fem!Harry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-12 01:23:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 58,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5648638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunter81095/pseuds/hunter81095
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruby Rose lived to be a Huntress, wanting to be just like her Mom, Summer Rose, however her last name wasn't always that of the one she saw as her mother, she was once known as Ruby Potter. The Wizarding World has no clue where their savior is, but a Death Eater decides the Goblet of Fire is the best way to bring her out of hiding. Ruby Rose is Fem! Harry.</p><p>This is a repost of the same story on FF.Net.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Extra Post Chapter 10 AN: This story is now being beta'd by the user Recycler, who is now leafing through my story and removing some mistakes that I made and didn't correct, and making some things a little clearer, the story should read a little smoother now, enjoy!**

**AN: I liked the thought of a Harry Potter/RWBY crossover where Ruby is fem! Harry. Just a couple of quick things before we begin though.**

**1\. Time will be a bit uneven for the RWBY and HP Universes. I did this because I wanted Ruby to be at Beacon by the time she ends up at Hogwarts.**

**2\. I don't like Ron all that much, but I won't be needlessly bashing him, he'll be there, have a couple lines or so, but Ruby and he won't be best buds.**

**3\. Hermione still had the Troll encounter, but the Professors got there in time. Ron and her never became friends, and Hermione made friends with a couple of Ravenclaws, and the one Gryffindor female everyone conveniently forgets about instead.**

* * *

Lily Potter screamed in terror and despair as she heard her husband die to the monster that went by the name Voldemort. She prepared herself for the sacrifice that was to come as she heard him slowly, deliberately ascend the staircase. She plucked up her Gryffindor courage, stood straight and tried to hold back her tears as she felt the pang that ran through her heart at the thought of her child being raised without her or James. Ruby would never know her mother or father, and probably wouldn't remember them at all.

She stood tall and strong as she heard the monster outside the door whisper "Bombarda" and calmly shielded her face with her arms as the door violently slammed open and the wizard entered the room, a cold smirk on his lips and malice glowing in his red eyes.

"Stand aside Mudblood, and you shall live," Riddle said, with a slight hiss to his words. Lily shook her head, standing directly in it's path, planting her feet.

"No! Take me, not Ruby!" Lily said as bravely as she could, her chin held high as she defied the monster for both the fourth and final time of her life. Voldemort grew angry at the woman's courage.

"Stand aside filth! Stand aside NOW!" Voldemort said again, much louder this time, as if trying to will her to comply, which she didn't, and never would.

"Never!" Lily said for the second time as she struggled to keep her brave facade for her daughter, not wanting to break into hysterics in the face of death.

"Fine. Well, at least nobody will say I didn't give you a chance," Voldemort spoke as Lily shook her head, tears flowing down her face as she saw the unmistakable light of the Killing Curse rush by her, with barely enough time to shield her young daughter from it.

"Finally," Riddle muttered as Lily Potter fell to the ground like a marionette with it's strings cut. Ruby started to wail in her crib as she saw her mommy land on the floor, unmoving.

Riddle looked at the prophesied child with not a small amount of glee and contempt as he stood over her, wand at the ready and Killing Curse on his lips.

"Good riddance," Voldemort said with disdain as he yelled the dreaded curse…

...and only had a fraction of a second to register that he'd killed himself as the curse rebounded from the child and hit him instead, ripping his already tattered soul from his body and shattering it, leaving behind nothing but his robes and his wand.

Ruby passed out from the pain that was inflicted upon her tiny body when the monster threw the curse at her, causing a lighting bolt-shaped wound upon her forehead as a piece of it's (for the Dark Lord could hardly be called human anymore) soul attached to the wound, and began sucking at the infant's magical core in order to establish itself in it's new host.

* * *

It wasn't long after that that a giant of a man with a bristly beard who was simply too big to be allowed carried the baby Ruby from the wreckage of her home, and placed her under his coat as he swung himself over a large magical motorcycle and flew it into the distance where his superior, the Headmaster of Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore, had told him too. They flew for a couple of hours as the giant navigated them towards the little girl's only remaining relatives.

They landed, and the giant, Rubeus Hagrid, Groundskeeper of Hogwarts, saw an old man with an oddly shaped nose, garish periwinkle robes, a long white beard and hair the same color, and buckled boots, who motioned for the recently orphaned child.

Hagrid handed the little girl over to the old man, who gently rubbed her forehead where the scar was with his thumb as he laid her down on the doorstep inside of a conjured basket and left quietly, while the giant somberly flew the motorcycle off with a deafening roar.

However, they weren't the only ones there; A man with long black hair and a short, pointed beard walked over to the girl quietly, muttering an incantation under his breath as he prepared a small magical circle around the basket, charging it with his magic before finally whispering out the last words and tapping it with his wand, sending the basket spinning upwards as if it was a portkey, before he smiled slightly and disappeared into the night, whistling a cheery tune.

When Vernon Dursley opened his door shortly afterward, he immediately slammed it shut, muttering about ruddy pranksters up at all hours bothering good, decent citizens with their jokes, none the wiser of any of the extraordinary events that had just taken place.

* * *

However, in a place very far way, a parallel universe as some might say, a black and red haired young girl with silver eyes had just saved the city she lived in, Vale, from a massive invasion of soulless monsters bent on the destruction of humanity called the Creatures of Grimm. She and her team, RWBY, named after the first letters of each of its members' names, were relaxing in their dorm, listening to music, reading, studying, or cleaning their extremely complicated weapon.

This is where we join our young heroine and her team as they relax after their extremely harrowing week. Said week was spent tracking down the criminal Roman Torchwick and the terrorist group known as the White Fang, culminating in a showdown with him and his lackeys on a train, that crashed into a barrier protecting the city and its inhabitants from the monsters on the outside.

Although the four had survived their mission and helped save the city, and Torchwick was behind bars, they were still left with more questions than answers.

"Ruby, you've cleaned Crescent Rose almost ten times in the last two days, I think it's clean by now," Ruby's partner, Weiss Schnee, the "W" in their team name said from the bunk below her.

Ruby merely shrugged as she ran a Dust-infused cloth over the blade of her beloved High Caliber Sniper Scythe and replied.

"Yes, but it helps me clear my mind, and it's been way too cluttered the last two days," she replied as she started screwing the blade guard back onto the top of the blade itself. Weiss popped out from under her leader's bunk, a single eyebrow elegantly raised.

"What do you mean, your mind has been too cluttered?" The older girl asked, equally curious and exasperated as she put a bookmark in her textbook and shut it quietly. Ruby shrugged again as she began popping multiple different sliders and gears into place as Crescent Rose began resembling something like a weapon rather than a box of parts.

"Well, I've got this overwhelming feeling that something's going to happen. I don't know what it is though," she said quietly as she absentmindedly rubbed the scar on her forehead. It had been there for as long as she and her father could remember. Something had screamed from it the day she had had her Aura awakened, and she had passed out from it.

Her father later told her that something came out of the scar that was black as a Grimm's hide, and left behind ichor much like the soulless monsters that ravaged the majority of the planet did when they died. Neither he nor the doctors knew what it was though; all they knew was that it had apparently been using her dormant Aura to sustain itself, and upon it being awakened, was immediately expelled from her as her Aura began to heal her body.

Don't be ridiculous Ruby," Yang, her older half-sister said from across the room, having taken off her headphones when she noticed Ruby rubbing the scar. It had been a nervous tick of hers' for years. She did it when she was lying, anxious, or nervous, and Yang knew that she needed to be calmed down.

"I'm sure that it's nothing, I mean Blakey here caught Torchwick, and the White Fang is stopped for the moment, so I'm sure that everything is going to be fine," she said with a reassuring smile.

Ruby tried to smile back, but it probably came out as more of a grimace as she finished putting her weapon back together, folding it shut and open a few times to ensure it's functionality until she hooked it to it's holster on her back and laid back on her bed, fidgeting a little as she did so.

"I don't know, Yang, I don't like this feeling, it's making me way too anxious for it to not be something," she said uneasily as she hopped down and walked over to the closet, pulling a large case that was filled with large red cartridges, each filled with twenty bullets of different kinds for her beloved weapon. In her state of anxiousness she began sorting through them meticulously, checking them all to ensure they were filled before setting them at the bottom of the pile of the case and continuing the process, subconsciously rubbing her faded scar every now and then as it tingled. Yang sighed and jumped off her bunk, grabbing her sister from behind and hugging her tightly to her chest.

"Oh come on, sis! It's fine! You'll be fine! Unless Beacon spontaneously combusts in the next five minutes, I'm sure everything will be okay!" The self-proclaimed blonde bombshell said brightly as she ruffled Ruby's hair, much to the smaller girl's annoyance.

Ruby just nodded uncertainly as she set the large box aside and began sorting through the ammunition for Yang's Ember Celica, then Blake's Gambol Shroud, before finally examining the suitcases full of Dust that Weiss loaded her rapier Myrtenaster with.

"Ruby!" Weiss called out, an eyebrow twitching in annoyance as she watched the girl open the suitcases, check the bottles for cracks, and ensure they were sealed properly, before moving on to other cases of the substance. Ruby jumped a bit, luckily not holding onto a jar of Dust that moment and whirled around, rubbing the back of her head nervously.

"Eh heh heh... sorry Weiss," Ruby said quietly as she fidgeted under her partner's gaze, "I'm just nervous, and didn't realize I was doing it..." she defended feebly as she wilted further. Weiss sighed quietly, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance and hidden amusement at her leader's quirks.

"Whatever, fine," Weiss mumbled as she shook her head, "Just... don't cause another explosion, okay?" She said in a stern tone. Ruby mockingly saluted as she went back to sorting through the Dust, glad for the distraction from her uncomfortable feeling.

She spent the next ten minutes doing so, forgetting the tingling in her scar as she quietly went about checking the Dust vials, quietly humming under her breath as her team went back to doing what they were before as their leader worked. Yang knew she'd have to talk to Ruby later, but she was fine for now. She was just scared she would have a panic attack or something, but it seemed that she didn't give her little sister enough credit.

* * *

Back in Ruby's original world, however, an ancient Headmaster was deeply worried, for the Girl-Who-Lived hadn't shown up for the first three years of her schooling, but there was nothing he could do. Point Me spells did nothing, and he knew the girl was alive, as the curious silver instrument he had sitting on his desk was still in one piece. If she had died it would have turned to ash at the very moment she passed.

Albus Dumbledore had sent many members of the Order of the Phoenix looking for the girl and had no clue where she could possibly be. He knew there was a Death Eater among them this year, though, and figured they were trying to lure Ruby Potter out of hiding through the use of the Goblet of Fire. He thought this was a decent plan, and figured he would allow it to continue, only apprehending said Death Eater when the name came out of the Goblet, as he had absolutely no doubt it would. He just hoped and prayed that she would be up to the challenge of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

Little did he know that he should have reversed that sentence.

With that thought, Professor Dumbledore summoned his hat and headed down to the Great Hall, where the students would be awaiting the Choosing of the Champions.

* * *

Ruby was feeling increasingly uneasy as time went on. She heard what sounded like a fire roaring in her ears, yet she knew for a fact there wasn't a fire near her. Unless she counted Yang, she thought, inwardly giggling at her joke. She quickly lost her amusement, however, when she started hearing an old, loud voice booming in her ears.

"The Champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour!" The voice boomed. The man sounded like someone out of her books, or one of the kid's movies she _definitely_ didn't watch anymore. She chalked it up to exhaustion, however, and merely started to seal back all the boxes of ammunition and Dust she had sorted through to try to calm her mind and decided she'd take a nap.

"The Champion for Durmstrang is Viktor Krum!" The same voice said again, the roar of flames getting louder. Ruby pushed the noise from her mind, trying to ignore it, wanting to merely put away her team's ammo and go to bed.

"The Champion for Hogwarts is Cedric Diggory!" The voice boomed, this time sounding happier. Ruby stopped what she was doing at this point and rubbed her ears and shook her head, trying to ignore the voice and maybe figure out what her brain was dreaming about when she got to sleep.

"Ruby Potter!?" The voice boomed, sounding alarmed, and Ruby's eyes widened dramatically, looking around the room frantically. She'd not heard that last name in a VERY long time. On her fifth birthday, when she'd gotten her Aura unlocked, Ruby had also gotten her first cloak, much like the one she wore now, and had changed her last name from Potter to Rose. No one but her, her father Taiyang, her Uncle Qrow and Yang should have known about that!

"Weiss, did you hear that?" Ruby asked, turning her head towards her partner, head cocked to the side. Weiss looked up oddly at her leader.

"What do you mean? Hear what?" She asked, slightly annoyed at her leader interrupting her studying...again. However, that thought was pushed from her consciousness when she saw the pure, unadulterated look of fear across her leader's face. She had never seen her look so utterly terrified and helpless. What could possibly have caused that?

"Ruby..." she ventured, "what did you hear?"

Ruby shook a little, disturbed and more than a little scared at hearing voices of all things in her head, but also because the uneasy feeling was expanding from her like it was about to burst. She shook involuntarily as she rubbed her scar again, her eyes getting wet as she tried her best to answer, "I heard someone yell my name..." she said quietly. Weiss looked at her quizzically.

"How is that something worth getting so shaken over?" Weiss asked rather harshly, her irritation subconsciously leaking into her voice.

Yang, however, seemed to catch the inflection on the way she said "name" and immediately knew what she meant...Absolutely NOBODY should have known about that!

"Ruby...do you mean you heard someone yell...that name?" Yang asked tentatively. To be honest, it wasn't something worth being so upset over, only three people knew her birth last name other than Ruby. The only reason she'd ever been Ruby Potter was because it was clearly written in the odd letter they had found with the basket Ruby had been found in.

Ruby nodded frantically, wondering why she felt so panicked all of a sudden.

"I...I don't know who it was… it sounded like some old guy...and there was fire noises...it's really creeping me out," she mumbled, her silver eyes shooting around the room nervously.

"RUBY POTTER!?" The voice boomed again, making the room shake this time, though Ruby was still the only one who heard it. She looked around fearfully as the rest of Team RWBY grabbed their weapons and looked around the room, the pile of ammo and Dust all but forgotten laying in the center of the room.

"Guys...did you hear it that time?" Ruby asked timidly, holding Crescent Rose in it's ready position, looking around the room as if expecting the man, who she decided she didn't like, to appear out of thin air. The rest of Team RWBY shook their heads no, still shooting glances around the room. The four moved together into a diamond formation, their backs to each other so that they didn't have a blind spot.

Except right in between them was where the Goblet of Fire decided it should pop a portal to summon it's wayward champion.

The portal ripped open into a maelstrom of white light, blinding the four as they closed their eyes to shield themselves from the bright flash, not having enough time to force themselves to not be sucked through the portal directly to the Great Hall of Hogwarts.

* * *

Dumbledore looked around the room stoically, though inside he was both giddy yet also feeling a sense of dread. Ruby Potter would finally come to Hogwarts! The Wizarding World would find their savior! Yet, he couldn't help but feel uneasy at the prospect, and he was proven correct when the Goblet summoned a large white portal directly in front of itself, dropping four girls in a heap in front of it, before dropping multiple suitcases and boxes on top of them.

The smallest one shot up almost immediately, rose petals oddly trailing from her movement, which he immediately assumed to be some kind of illusion or cantrip much like the one he used on his eyes, and looked around the room, holding an oversized red scythe with multiple different baubles and boxes connected to it.

Out of the other three (The one with white hair, the one with a black bow, and the one with rather voluminous blonde hair), he assumed correctly the smallest one with black hair and red highlights was who he was looking for, which was proven for certain when she cast a silver-eyed gaze upon him.

He smiled genuinely, as if four oddly dressed girls dropping in front of him were nothing out of the ordinary, and spread his arms wide in welcome.

"Ruby Potter..." he said softly but equally loud, not noticing the girl's eyes widening before narrowing dangerously, "Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"


	2. Chapter 2

Ruby looked at the old man with narrowed eyes. He had the same voice she'd heard just before she'd been whisked off to this strange place along with her team. She surveyed her surroundings, instantly becoming on edge as she heard him call her by her birth name. She readied her weapon, one hand on the bolt action, just in case she needed to use it.

"Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" He said in a cheery tone, which didn't help her nervousness one bit. She also didn't like how people were staring at Crescent Rose with looks of contempt at the weapon she had spent months to build and years to perfect. She scowled as she stood her ground, noticing her team standing up and taking ready positions around her, watching the apparent kidnapper's henchman? Subordinates? Students? In case he tried anything dirty.

"Who are you?" Ruby asked the man in the odd robes, only taking her eyes away to look at the thousand or so other people in the room. Everyone here looked like they belonged in a cult! Why were they all wearing robes, and why were the older people (who she assumed to be teachers) pointing wooden sticks at her team? Were they weapons of some kind? She inwardly shook her head and focused on her target, forcing herself into her trademarked "Team Leader Mode".

The old man simply smiled at her question, while Ruby heard a few shocked gasps from the people in the hall. Was he someone she should know? He LOOKED rather of important, and he did command attention like Professor Ozpin, but he didn't have the same atmosphere of respect that Ozpin did.

"Why, my dear girl, I am Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster of this fine school you now stand in!" He announced, causing Weiss to raise a questioning eyebrow while Ruby looked baffled, Yang scrunched up her face, and Blake looked stoic as ever.

"This is a school?" Weiss asked haughtily, seemingly scoffing at the oddly floating candles that lit the hall. Dumbledore merely smiled again and replied.

"Well of course! Miss Potter...and guests, this is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" Dumbledore said, opening his arms wide once again, making a sweeping motion around the hall, though his gesture was stopped by a snicker from Ruby, a snort from Yang, a scoff from Weiss, but merely a raised eyebrow from Blake.

"'Hogwarts'?" Ruby asked through her giggles. "That's a weird name for a school, and besides, magic isn't real," she said, rolling her eyes and giggling quietly again. The Headmaster simply raised his eyebrow and replied.

"Then how do you explain how you got here?" He asked curiously. Inwardly, he was starting to worry about whatever had happened to Ruby, if she didn't even know about magic being real, they were in VERY serious trouble.

"Well that's easy!" Weiss said snootily, "Someone here clearly has a teleportation-based Semblance and intended to bring us here for whatever nefarious purpose!" Weiss finished with a sniff of disdain, "Magic. I mean please!"

Dumbledore responded by merely raising his wand and twirling it around, causing the boxes and suitcases that came with them to float around for a moment before piling neatly, the metal boxes holding ammunition stacked together, while Weiss' suitcases full of Dust stacked with each other. Blake merely looked at it with a raised eyebrow.

"You have a telekinetic Semblance," the Faunus said flatly, thinking that professor Goodwitch could do far better than that feeble display.

Dumbledore simply smiled (though the four suspected that they say a hint of frustration in it) before he called out, "Mipsy!"

Team RWBY looked at the old man who claimed that magic was real like he was even more insane than they thought, when they heard a soft 'pop' and a small creature with tennis-ball-sized eyes, floppy bat-like ears and dull brown, wrinkled skin appeared before the Headmaster, bowing slightly while looking up at the person who presumably summoned it.

"Headmaster be calling for Mipsy?" The little being sounded almost ecstatic, and spoke in a strange accent. "What can Mipsy be doin' for Headmaster?" She suddenly bounced from one foot to the other.

Dumbledore looked the creature in the eyes, careful to not look down his rather crooked nose at the little house elf asking to help. "Mipsy, I merely require you to prove the existence of magic to our new arrivals," he said softly and politely, pointing to Team RWBY.

Mipsy looked at the old man oddly while nodding, but didn't question the order. She simply walking up to the four of them and snapped her fingers at their luggage causing it to disappear. Then she snapped her fingers again, causing a stool to appear out of nowhere, before jumping up on it and looking at the youngest girl with them, before seeing the scar and falling backwards off the stool in shock and reverence.

"R-Ruby P-Potter be comin' to Hogwarts?!" The elf squeaked loudly, "The Girl Who Lived be comin' here at last!" The elf bowed down so low it's ears folded onto the floor. "Tis an honor to be meetin' the great Ruby Potter!"

Ruby herself blushed and hid in the hood of her cloak as she heard the students muttering and mumbling for the first time, unable to deal with all the attention she was now attracting. This was starting to get really bizarre.

Weiss however, was perfectly calm.

"Headmaster...Dumbledore, was it?" Weiss asked in her best 'Heiress to the Biggest Company in the World, Yet Granting You the Privilege of Speaking With Me' voice, "Why is this...creature, prostrating itself before our team leader?" Weiss asked in a no nonsense tone, reminiscent of the one used by their combat instructor at Beacon.

"Ah, that would be because Miss Potter here is rather famous in the Wizarding World!" Dumbledore said, smiling widely as he explained her story. "You see, the house elves like Mipsy here, the ones who lived through the Wizarding War especially, have a great respect for your friend here, and are honored to meet her at last," he said in a placating tone as Weiss' eyes narrowed and the hand currently holding her rapier twitched towards him just an inch, glowing a bright red for a split second.

"Stop calling me that," Ruby said quietly, shaking in both embarrassment and anger at being continually called "Miss Potter". Dumbledore regarded her with a raised eyebrow.

"Stop calling you what, Miss Potter?" He asked, and the students stopping their mumbling and quiet gossip as the Girl-Who-Lived went off at the Headmaster and most powerful wizard alive.

"That! My name is Ruby Rose! I haven't been Ruby Potter for ten years! I had my Dad change my last name to Rose to honor my mother, she was a Huntress, and she died in the line of duty, saving a village from a Grimm attack, SHE was my mother, so I took HER name, to remind people of her!" she practically screamed, tired of being called by a name she'd not heard since she was little and hated more than she would say.

Dumbledore noticed the blonde girl's hair started shimmering, and her lilac eyes flashed red for a moment as he listened to the girl vent her frustrations.

"My humblest apologies then, Miss Rose," Dumbledore corrected himself, though he sounded more like he was humoring her than anything else. "Now then, I believe you need to go meet up with the other champions in the room off to my left," he said as he motioned towards the aforementioned room. Ruby tilted her head quizzically.

"Wait, what do you mean, Champions? I just want to get back to Beacon, we've got classes tomorrow, and Professor Goodwitch will kill us if we're late!" Ruby said, getting slightly anxious as she thought of her strictest teacher's wrath should she be caught skipping classes.

Dumbledore chuckled, both at the idea of having to explain the Triwizard Tournament, as well as her Professor's extraordinarily ironic last name. He noticed a few quieted snickers coming from the Slytherin table that heard the name as well. "Well, you see Miss Rose, the Goblet of Fire-" he motioned towards the chalice that had brought them there, "-has summoned you to compete in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. It is a magically binding contract, and as such, until you finish the tournament, you are... I do believe 'stuck here' might be the appropriate wording, although I believe you'll enjoy your time here."

He sighed slightly, cursing his old brain for going off track. "The Tri-Wizard tournament is a competition, between three, well, four, now, champions from different schools all around the world. You must face different types of dangers throughout the competition, and you shall be awarded points based on your performance in each of the three tasks. The winner is awarded one thousand Galleons, our currency here in the Wizarding World, and eternal glory for themselves and their school," he said grandly, watching as the Girl-Who-Lived's face lit up at the mention of dangers, but looked on as he explained the rest before looking towards her team, and upon getting one glare, a shrug, and an uncertain nod, she looked up at the Headmaster once more.

"Alright. I'll do it. It can't be much worse than Initiation at Beacon, anyway." she said confidently, looking towards her team, then motioning towards the door to the antechamber, where the Champions awaited. "Come on Team RWBY! Let's go see what this is all about!" She exclaimed, leading the other three towards their destination, but was stopped by Dumbledore's cough.

"Alone, Miss Rose," he added, causing the white haired girl to rush him almost inhumanly fast and point her rapier directly at his throat. The teachers all jumped up, aiming their wands at the girl, but she paid them no heed, as she knew her team would have them covered.

"Until we are perfectly sure that Ruby is safe here, we are going to go with her, _everywhere_ ," Weiss hissed, accentuating the last part by activating the Burn Dust in her rapier, causing it to smoke at the tip where it was up against Dumbledore's beard. Dumbledore nodded dumbly, now noticing the other girls pointing their weapons at him, simply waving the other three after their team leader where she waited, having the decency to look embarrassed all the while.

"Lead the way, Rubes!" Yang said excitedly, as if they didn't just threaten the Headmaster of Hogwarts in front of almost all his staff, and all of his students. Ruby simply turned around and walked into the antechamber, pretending not to notice the curious looks she got from the other "Champions" as she entered.

"Excuse me? Leetle girl?" A girl with silvery hair and blue eyes, dressed in a slightly less archaic looking blue robe, and with a rather thick accent asked. Ruby only barely looked up, her hood covering her eyes as she glanced up at the girl getting her attention. "Ees there a problem? Do zey need us back in ze Great Hall?" She asked, head cocked curiously while also looking down her nose at her.

Ruby blushed at even more unwanted attention, now noticing the other two staring at her curiously. "I-uh, the cup thingy spit my name out and it sucked me out of my dorm at Beacon, and I ended up here, and now I'm being told I have to compete in this championship thingy, and I have no idea what's going on, and it's freaking me out, and I just want to go back to Beacon-" Ruby babbled until she felt a familiar cold hand go over her mouth.

She looked up to see Weiss staring at her, eyebrow cocked elegantly, with an expression telling her to _please_ control herself. She nodded as Weiss returned the glare she was receiving from the accented girl who looked suspiciously like her twice as hard.

"And just who are you?" The girl asked rudely, nose turned up at Ruby, as if dismissing her as any sort of competition or threat, causing the red hooded leader to bristle.

"I'm Ruby Rose! Youngest member of Beacon Academy, leader of Team RWBY," she motioned towards the other three girls glaring at the one who dismissed their leader and friend. "And official Huntress-in-training!" she finished exuberantly, folding out her beloved scythe and leaning against it. "Now, who are you?" She asked, head cocked to side. Ruby could hear a low whistle emanating from a boy dressed in black robes with an odd insignia on it, eyeing her weapon both curiously and warily.

The older girl scoffed, such nonsense this little girl spouted! Though her weapon did look rather sharp… Well. She'd just be careful around her, no sense in risking serious injury. She puffed herself up and spoke.

"I am Fleur Delacour," she said imperiously, sounding a lot like Weiss when she introduced herself to someone she considered inferior, "the Champion for Beauxbatons," she finished, as if that was the single most impressive and important thing anybody could possibly be.

"Bow what now?" Yang asked, looking at the girl as if she was crazy. Fleur bristled slightly at the perceived slight against her school.

"Beauxbatons Academy of Magic!" She said haughtily, "The best magic school in all of Europe," she sniffed as the other two occupants of the room looked at her with a scowl, bringing the total to six.

Ruby looked even more confused however, but her questions had to wait as a man dressed in incredibly yellow clothing, a man wearing a rather starchy looking business suit, the Headmaster from before, a woman whose height rivaled Yatsuhashi, and a fancily dressed man with a scowl on his face walked in. While Dumbledore smiled jovially, his two companions looked like they were going to burst from anger.

"What is this nonsense Dumbledore!?" The scowling man accompanying them boomed, "A fourth champion?! Who s she supposed to represent? I demand a redraw! Four champions in the TRI-Wizard Tournament," he snorted with disdain. "Really!"

Dumbledore's smile strained slightly as the man went on a tirade. "Now, now, Headmaster Karkaroff, you know the draw cannot be redone. She will represent her school, or her team, or whoever she wishes, though I would assume she'd represent her parents' school," he smiled at the girl who looked at him oddly. What exactly did he know about her parents…?

The tall woman scoffed before speaking with the same accent as the unpleasant girl Fleur did. "Yes, you would suggest that she represent your school Dumblydore. You want give 'Ogwarts two bites of ze apple. If that is ze case, zen I demand we restart ze tournament!" She said, looking down on both of the men.

Ruby spoke up, quietly at first, then gaining strength, "If I have to represent a school, then I'll represent mine!" She said proudly as she managed to smile at the people who were now looking at her with confusion. "I'm going to represent Beacon Academy of the Kingdom of Vale!" She pumped her fist in the air, her sister doing the same, while Blake made a soft smile, and Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose, hiding her faint smirk at her leader's actions.

"Then it's settled then!" The blonde man wearing far too much yellow announced as he waved his hands exuberantly. "Ruby Potter," he was settled with four glares from RWBY (They were beginning to suspect that they would be doing that a lot while they were here), which he either ignored, or didn't notice, as he continued, "will represent this Beacon Academy alongside the champions for Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang!" He looked positively giddy with the fact that Ruby would be here. Yang was fairly sure this guy had major problems.

Ruby looked slightly intimidated by the man's exuberance and muttered, "I really hope that Professor Ozpin or Goodwitch can find us soon..."

* * *

Professor Glynda Goodwitch pinched the bridge of her nose, in annoyance, exasperation, and being flat out baffled by the circumstances she'd just been shown.

"Team RWBY were sucked into a portal of some kind that appeared without any warning or explanation, and then it just shut as soon as they went through?" The stern woman asked.

Team JNPR nodded in the affirmative. Jaune looked like he was about to faint from his fear of both being scrutinized by the combat teacher, and the fact his friends (and Weiss) had disappeared into thin air. Pyrrha and Nora both looked concerned, the latter so much so that for once the N in JNPR wasn't bouncing around, far too busy being worried for her friends to be giddy. Ren, however, looked stoic as ever, though if you were to give him a closer look (as one often had to when it came to reading his emotions), you could see the concern for his friends in his eyes, and the almost unnoticeable downwards dip in his lips as he tried to think of where team RWBY could be.

"Well that is extraordinarily unusual," came a voice from the door. Professor Goodwitch looked up with an eyebrow raised, knowing exactly who it was, although the need for him to appear out of nowhere was rather annoying.

Team JNPR, however, practically jumped and turned around on the spot, surprised to find Professor Ozpin standing there, taking a sip from his coffee mug to hide his thoughtful frown.

"It would seem we have to investigate the dormitory of Team RWBY to find out what exactly could have happened," he said, before turning around and walking in the direction of student dorms. Professor Goodwitch sighed and waved for Team JNPR to follow.

"Come on then, we'll need you to show us exactly where you saw Team RWBY disappear from," she said, using her riding crop to gesture them onward.

* * *

The team quickly ran to RWBY's dorm and met Ozpin there, standing in the room, his eyes closed, and his mouth set in a concentrated frown. Upon the four walking in, he snapped his eyes open and sipped from his mug again, using his cane to gesture them inside. "Now, Mr. Arc, please show us where Team RWBY 'disappeared' from, would you?"

Jaune blinked, then nodded, before walking over to the girls' closet and gesturing to the spot where the portal had appeared, with only a small scorch mark showing it had been there. "Right there, sir, where the small burn mark is," he said, before moving back to allow the Headmaster to examine it.

Ozpin narrowed his eyes at it, obviously concentrating on the part of the floor he was examining. "Hmm..." he hummed, staring at the floor intensely, channeling some his Aura into the spot, before finally coming to a decision on what it could possibly be.

"Well, I can definitively say that Mr. Arc was telling the truth about a portal," he said, causing Jaune to smile slightly in pride. "However," he continued, "I can also say that Team RWBY is most certainly not on Remnant anymore."

All he got was wide-eyed stares from his five spectators.

* * *

**POST CHAPTER 10 AN: This chapter was slightly reworked by being beta'd by Recycler!**

**AN: So, I'm going to be gone from today to Friday, so I decided I'd rush and get Chapter 2 all ready for you guys! I do plan on getting Goodwitch and Team JNPR to Hogwarts as well.**

**There's a poll on my profile asking about who I should ship Ruby with, feel free to vote. Don't worry, there's a "no ship" option as well! The poll will be open from this morning/afternoon, November 7th, to next Friday, November 13th. When I get home, I will be closing the poll.**

**If you have a request for a ship that isn't Ruby, send me a PM, or leave a GUEST review.**

**Be sure to review and follow!**


	3. Chapter 3

"Professor Ozpin, do you mean that team RWBY went to another planet?" Professor Goodwitch asked disbelievingly. Ozpin sipped his coffee and shook his head.

"No Glynda, they are in a different dimension" he replied. He noticed the questioning looks of team JNPR and his Deputy Headmistress. "As in, where they are is either another Remnant, or something else entirely. I'll immediately begin working on re-opening it, I'll be sending you through Glynda" he cast a look over to JNPR seeing their determined gazes, despite their fear for their friends. "You'll also be taking team JNPR" he sipped his coffee.

"Professor Ozpin? Why would I take a first year team when I could take a stronger team such as CVFY?" She asked politely, yet somewhat indignantly. Ozpin merely smirked at her.

"Never underestimate one's determination to find their friends or comrades Glynda, I have the utmost faith in Mr. Arc and his team. They didn't get to go on their mission on account of the Breach anyways." With that he turned and addressed team JNPR.

"Do not thank me for this opportunity, you will be facing unknown odds, they could be friendly, or they could be hostile, be prepared for the latter and listen to Professor Goodwitch, she will be the Huntress you're shadowing. Bring back team RWBY and information on how they got where they are in the first place" he sipped his coffee. "I will reopen the portal in twelve hours, keep someone near the portal at all times, as time might run differently between these two planes. Let me know of the hostility levels of this dimension, and if I should gather more Huntsmen and Huntresses to go through with you Glynda." his subordinate nodded and he turned back around where the portal had been before. "Get your equipment together, I'll need time." Ozpin said calmly, causing team JNPR to nod and leave along with Professor Goodwitch.

"Hopefully they'll be okay."

* * *

Ruby and her team followed the teacher with the odd accent, Professor McGonagall, towards where they would be staying. Seeing as how Durmstrang had their ship, and Beauxbaton's had their carriage, Dumbledore had assigned team RWBY a guest suite where they would be able to relax away from the Hogwarts students. Which, if Ruby had a say in it, would probably be most of the time, as much as she wanted to explore the _magical castle,_ she was getting distinctly tired of being followed and harassed by the students already. She'd already had at least fifteen different students ask for her autograph, and one or two even tried to propose a "betrothal contract" between them and her. She didn't know what that was, but by the way Weiss glared at them, and Yang's eyes went red, it wasn't anything good.

"Here's your room" the Professor said stopping in front of one of the odd moving and talking paintings. Team RWBY looked at her oddly, before she smirked and spoke to the painting. "Dragon's tongue" she said clearly, causing the portrait to nod silently and swing open, showing a large room, consisting of a common area that branched off to four different bedrooms and two different bathrooms.

The girls looked at the room in awe, if anything, at least the accommodations beat Beacon's dorms! They had to give them that, though they still just wanted to go home. Ruby walked around the room with her mouth wide open, waving at the painting above the fire place and checking in the bedrooms, finding that their ammunition and Weiss' Dust had already been delivered and was separated by weapon and placed in different rooms. Ruby's room was colored red and gold, and had a large four poster bed with her ammunition boxes set at the foot of it. The bedroom alone was almost the size of her dorm!

Weiss found much the same in the room next to Ruby's, her room was painted in Green and Silver, her Dust cases at the foot of her bed. Weiss gave the people here credit, at least their beds were comfortable.

Blake's room was in the same configuration as the rest of her team's just painted in Blue and Bronze. She also had a bookshelf with a single book on it next to the bed, which reminded her of the library the Professor had mentioned. Blake got incredibly giddy on the inside, she'd get to learn about this place at least.

Yang's room was colored yellow and black, shotgun shells packed neatly at the foot of her extremely large bed. It did look inviting, but she wanted to explore a little more first, and see if she could find some way to contact Beacon, she wanted to get home with Ruby as fast as possible. She knew Ruby was a great fighter, but she was going to be fighting alone! If Yang could help it, she would be fighting with her, or she would find a way to break that contract.

Which meant she would have to go to this place's library!

Yang deflated...she'd go get Blake's help first.

* * *

Dumbledore was ecstatic but wary at the same time, it was an emotion he'd been feeling a lot of today, and what an exciting day it had been!

The Girl-Who-Lived had finally come to Hogwarts! But she was far different than he thought she could be. She was strong, unbelievably so, if that aura she'd emitted had meant anything. However, her 'team' as she called it, was named after herself, if she had a say in it, that might mean she was rather egotistical. He'd have to watch her carefully to gauge her strength and personality.

She had no clue about magic, yet she could move extremely fast, literally trailing rose petals behind her as she went. Her "sister" did some form of transformation when she experienced what he had guessed was an extreme emotion, he didn't know what the other two girls could do, but he sensed something from them, the same as he felt from that blonde girl, Bang? He'd have to have them formally introduce themselves.

Dumbledore sighed, as much information as he had gleaned from the four so far, he had almost nothing as well. He had to learn more about where they came from, and find a way to keep Ruby Potter (which _was_ her name) here! She was too important to let run off to some other dimension and do as she pleased! She needed to be here where he could guide her to her destiny, which if it involved her dying at the hands of Lord Voldemort, so be it, but he had no choice in the matter, that's just how prophecies worked.

He was interrupted from his musings by a ping in the wards, much like the one he experienced when Ruby and her friends had landed in the Great Hall. He quickly left his office and headed towards the Hall quicker than anyone his age had the right to.

He entered the hall to a mass of oddly dressed people, and one oddly dressed woman standing over them in a stance he'd seen Minerva do time and time again, he'd have to learn who these people were and quickly. To ensure they weren't a threat to his students of course.

"Excuse me, but may I ask why you're in my school?"

* * *

Ozpin sweated slightly as he forced the portal open, using his aura to sustain it as Glynda gave team JNPR the customary "Do as I say at all times" speech all Huntsmen and Huntresses who had trainees shadow them gave before their missions began.

"Glynda, if that is all, I believe you and Team JNPR need to be departing, team RWBY might need your assistance." he said in his normal tone of voice, though Glynda could hear the slightest bit of strain behind it as she waved for team JNPR to follow her.

"Alright, I'll go through, and I'll give you the all clear when I make contact with the other side" she handed them a length of rope that was tied to her waist. "I'll pull on this rope twice to signal it's safe to come through, if I don't pull on it in thirty seconds, pull me back out, understand?" She asked sternly. They all nodded. "Good, I'll be going in now" and with that, she jumped through the white portal and landed gracefully on her feet in an opulent looking Dining hall, a projection of the night sky above her, and thousands of candles somehow floating and illuminating the Hall.

Taking one last look around, her weapon at the ready just in case, she nodded and pulled the rope twice. They pulled twice back and jumped through...and landed in a heap on the floor. She sighed as she looked down at the four, Jaune Arc on top of them. She pinched the bridge of her nose and was all set to berate them when she heard a voice behind them.

"Excuse me, but may I ask why you're in my school?"

Glynda whirled around, her riding crop pointed at the man that had entered the room they were in, she could hear team JNPR shoot up and pull their weapons, ready to fight if need be. " _Good_ " she thought, " _maybe this won't be so bad after all_." She cleared her throat and relaxed slightly, though her weapon was still ready to be pulled at a moment's notice. "I'm Glynda Goodwitch, Deputy Headmistress, and Combat Instructor at Beacon Academy." she said flatly, noticing the flicker of surprise, then recognition, which meant team RWBY must have mentioned her, then...was that..panic? She tightened her stance unconsciously, ready to make him to return her students by force if need be. However, he very quickly regained his composure, and Glynda was sure only she and Miss Nikos had caught the emotions playing across his face.

"A pleasure to meet you" he said jovially, " _This...might be a problem"_ he thought. "I am Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, the leader of this school you've found yourself landed in. Four of your charges, a team called...Ruby, I do believe. The leader of the team, Ruby Po-Rose" he corrected himself, figuring that's the name she was known by there, "found herself rather unwillingly entered into a tournament of sorts, and I'm afraid it will be quite impossible for her to leave before it's end" he had planned on taking her to his office, along with these other teenagers with her, but he suddenly had an idea on getting Ruby directly under his guidance! "I can gather the other three though, and send you on your way with them, however, Ruby must stay until the tournament's completion. It is unfortunately required" he finished with a disappointed sigh.

Professor Goodwitch however, wasn't one of the best Huntresses in the world for no reason, she could smell a plot, regardless of how subtle from a mile away, she simply narrowed her eyes, pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and stared at the man with a frown before saying, "I assume the other participants in this 'tournament' have some form of adult representation, correct?" She narrowed her eyes to slits, and glared at the man, who made an almost imperceptible flinch at the intimidation before he blinked and sighed.

"Yes, of course, but seeing as how young Ruby was supposed to come here when she was eleven, I took the responsibility of the young girl's representation so I could ensure her safe transition to this environment" he said, choosing his words carefully, he knew he was treading very thin ice, and one misstep might have him floundering, so he tried his best to make it sound like he was doing them a favor.

Professor Goodwitch however, just frowned even deeper. "Thank you...Headmaster" she said the title grudgingly, this man was obviously as vague as her boss, and could possibly play a game of wits with him and come out in a tie, but he seemed far too...quirky, to be able to lead a school full of students, and if the size of this Hall was to be believed, it was a rather _large_ school. However, there was something clearly odd here, this wasn't Remnant, how could Ruby have possibly been meant to come _here_? And wasn't it her choice whether she came here or not? Oh well, she had somehow gotten herself into some kind of tournament, and it would be her duty to train her and provide for her the best intel on the trials she must undertake as well as she could.

After she berated her for doing something so stupid of course.

* * *

Ruby ran away from what must have been the fifteenth pack of "admirers' she'd met in the three hours she'd been in this "Hogwarts" place. She assumed it was a dream, but something was telling her she'd be proven wrong soon. She came to a stop as she almost ran into the eccentric old man that said he was the Headmaster of this place, Dumb Door? She internally shrugged, it wasn't that important, she didn't plan on being here very long, even if it was a dream, she, Weiss, and Blake could find a way to break this "magic contract" thing and she'd be out of here as quick as possible. And if this wasn't a dream, she highly doubted that Professor Goodwitch would take an "I was sucked into an alternate dimension" excuse for being late very seriously.

However, when Ruby looked up and saw a certain person behind her, she could have sworn she was either about to wake up, or saved from this odd place, on the off chance this wasn't a dream. "P-Professor Goodwitch!?" Ruby squeaked out, more than a little intimidated at seeing the strict Professor here. Ruby could almost swear she saw a small softening of the stoic woman's eyes as she turned her gaze towards her before they took back their normal hard and stern look accompanied by her trademark frown.

"Miss Rose," she addressed as if they were still at Beacon and not in some odd school in another dimension, "what have you been told about using your semblance in the halls?" She asked rhetorically as she raised a critical eyebrow at her, as if daring her to deny having never been scolded for it before. Ruby deflated under the teacher's gaze and let loose a defeated sigh.

"That I'm not supposed to Professor Goodwitch" she replied dutifully before she perked up as she realized just how fortunate her presence here was. "Ma'am! I need your help to get out of here! This odd cup thing sucked me and my team here, and we were kinda sorta stuck here without a clue as to what is going on, and this old guy" she motioned towards Dumbledore, "said I have to fight in this tournament thing to leave, but if you're here, then there must be some way to leave, right!?" she said all of this extremely fast, and in one breath.

Professor Goodwitch simply sighed as she reviewed what she had been told by this odd "Dumbledore" fellow. She didn't respect or trust the man as far as she could throw him, but she felt it was most prudent to study this "contract" Ruby had been stuck in due to being entered against her will. She simply sighed, pushed her glasses up her nose and shook her head slightly, "I'm sorry Miss Rose, but I have not had time to study the circumstances of your arrival here, I find it best to learn what I can about the factors that ended in you and your team's sudden abduction from Remnant and your subsequent landing here before I attempt to send you and your team back to Beacon" she noticed Ruby's dismayed face and added, "but I will find out the most I can as quickly as possible, along with helping guide you through this..tournament." With that, she turned on her heel and followed Dumbledore towards his office, keeping her hand near her weapon at all times.

"Oh, and Miss Rose" she called back over her shoulder, "Team JNPR is in the Great Hall you landed in, waiting for contact from Professor Ozpin, you might want to assure them of you and your team's relative safety" she walked away at a brisk pace and disappeared around a corner.

Ruby most certainly did _not_ squee in delight.

* * *

Jaune sat on the floor, his sword held across his lap, ready for quickly utilizing if necessary, and his shield able to be deployed equally as fast if need be as he scanned the hall for any signs of hostiles. He had immediately agreed with Pyrrha's assessment of the situation, it being that they couldn't trust everyone here, and that they should guard the area of the portal together, lest they be attacked. He had immediately sent Ren and Nora to watch the far door leading to the antechamber and he and Pyrrha were sat in such a way that they could flank anyone who would walk through the main doors of the hall.

But he wasn't exactly ready for a sudden rush of rose petals and an excitable looking Ruby in his face either.

"Gah!" he yelped as he fell backwards, almost dropping Crocea Mors as he did so, just barely grasping onto it before it could clatter onto the stone floor. He looked up sheepishly at his first friend at Beacon before he sighed at the huge smile that he was being given. "Sheesh Ruby, give a guy a warning next time, would ya?" he asked as he stood up, dusting the dirt off his jeans as he did so, smiling at the nervous look Ruby was adopting now.

"I'm sorry!" She said quickly, rubbing the back of her head, "But you see, my team and I have been stuck here for hours, and I already hate it here, I just want to go back to Beacon, and go back to ignoring my studying and homework until the last minute, and get these weird people who are obsessed with me for some reason to leave me alone!" Ruby hid her head inside her hood after this proclamation, as if it might cause the students to forget she existed. Jaune looked at her quizzically, not really understanding why people would be so obsessed with Ruby. Sure, she was amazing with her scythe, and she was rather fun to hang around, but students continuously hounding her? That made no sense at all to the knight.

"Wait, why are there people obsessed with you here?" Jaune asked, his head cocked to the side and a look of uncomprehending on his face.

Ruby sighed as she thought over how to explain this, she really didn't understand most of it herself, she really wished Weiss was here, she's good at explaining things! When she's not being mean, but she's not doing that as much anymore at least! Finally, Ruby realized she'd been leaving her first friend at Beacon hanging and rushed to explain what she could about what happened that caused her to get stuck in this 'Hogwarts' place.

"Well you see, I was with my team in my dorm at Beacon, and we were just doing all the stuff we normally do, you know? Except, I had this odd feeling of foreboding, and I was getting reaaaaaalllly anxious, so I started sorting through my ammo, then Yang's, then Blake's, and then Weiss' Dust, and then I started hearing that old guy's voice in my head, and he was yelling names and calling them Champions for this "Triwizard tournament" thing, but you see it wasn't in my head, this cup thing that the names came out of was opening a portal to here to make me show up so I would have to compete, but you see, I didn't enter my name, and whoever did probably wants me dead, but I mean this place couldn't have anything worse than the Grimm, could it?" Ruby explained a little faster than what was necessary, but slow enough for Jaune to understand which wasn't that hard, considering he was on a team with Nora Valkyrie.

"So, let me get this straight" Pyrrha chirped in from her spot watching over the large door, "This...cup...it opened a portal to this world and sucked you and your team through it in order to compete in a tournament?" Ruby nodded her assent. "Hmmm, that seems extremely odd, though I do agree the tournament couldn't be _that_ hard, it's best to not get a large head about it." Pyrrha paused to think for a moment, before seemingly being struck by a brilliant idea. "This place is a school, correct?" Ruby nodded confusedly. "Well, if this tournament has happened before, then it stands to reason that you could study the previous tournaments in order to see how it works. If it's just fighting one another like the Vytal Festival, I'm sure you'll do fine, however, if it involves other things, then you'll need to learn how it works." She smiled at Ruby, "We'll meet up in this place's library tomorrow, okay?" Pyrrha said with a smile.

Ruby brightened up, she may not like studying, but if it was studying about fighting and monsters, she didn't mind as much! "Sure Pyrrha! I'll meet you there with Blake in the morning!" With that, Ruby sped back off to her guest room, hoping to avoid anyone that would ask her for her propose to her..again.

Ruby shuddered at the thought.

* * *

**A/N Hey, so this chapter kinda sucked, but I am going to hopefully add in some action soon, I'll definitely be introducing some HP characters to the RWBY cast next chapter. *Cough* Hermione *cough*. I'll also be getting to the First Task before chapter 10 hopefully, I don't want to have thirty chapters of fluff and absolutely no fighting, so I'll try to have the First Task be soon, that's where the HP Universe REALLLLLY gets off track though.**

**POLL IS CLOSED by the way, and the winner was drum roll please!**

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**WHITE ROSE (RubyxWeiss)! I'll be sure to keep it in mind as I write!**

**See you all next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, Ruby awoke in a daze, her brain taking it's time to get up to full capacity. She sat up, stretched, and yawned before she opened her eyes, and noticed her bed wasn't swaying like it normally did. " _That's odd"_ thought Ruby as she moved to leap off her bed, intent on awakening Weiss to take first shower so she wouldn't be upset if Yang somehow managed it.

However when she leaped off the bed, instead of the normal seven foot drop she was accustomed to in the mornings, she fell a whole two feet.

Ruby's eyes shot open at this, thinking that her bed had fallen from the roof in her sleep, and squashed her partner.

"Weiss!?" Ruby screamed turning around to pull the bed off of her teammate, only to realize she wasn't in her dorm anymore...

This made her panic more, at least until she remembered what happened the day before, thinking it was a dream. She calmed down slightly, remembering that at least she hadn't crushed her teammate, partner, and BFF (No matter how much Weiss denied it!). Of course, realizing that she wasn't in a dream, and was in fact, in a different dimension, in a _magical castle_ , where she was apparently famous, was a bit of a shock in and of itself. However, for some reason it didn't affect her anywhere near as much as the thought of her hurting Weiss.

" _Hmmm, odd. Then again, she IS my partner, so of course I would be far more panicked if I accidentally hurt her! Even if we are in some different dimension, at least I know Weiss, and the rest of Team RWBY is okay!"_ thought Ruby as a way of explaning it to herself, even though it felt slightly wrong to her. Instead she shrugged it off and ran into the "Common area" of their suite to find Blake curled up in a chair by the fire with a book in her hand, seemingly contented with reading her literature by firelight.

"Hey Blake!" Ruby said in her usual chipper tone as she walked up and looked over the faunus' shoulder. "Whatcha reading?" She asked, scanning the words on the page.

Blake silently chuckled at her leader as she replied without looking up from her book. "It's apparently some form of book on magical animals." Blake could almost _feel_ Ruby's confused face at the new information, to which Blake defined with only a moment's pause. "It's a book about the habits and appearance of different kinds of animals, the types you would only read about in fairy tales, really." Blake said, flipping to a certain set of pages she was sure Ruby would find fascinating.

On it was a white horse, seemingly immaculate in every way, the very definition of a thoroughbred, however, there was something that clearly defined this thing as not being a horse. The giant horn protruding from it's head. Ruby gasped at the picture, partly because it was a photograph of a creature she was fairly sure only existed in a fairy tale, and partly because the picture was _moving_ just the paintings that lined the walls of the large castle.

Blake smirked at the reaction Ruby gave, even if it was just an outwards expression of her own when she had seen some of these for the first time. She turned the pages to the next one, the XXXXX Creature. A Dragon. Ruby gasped even louder as the next picture showed a green scaled dragon, with large scales protruding from it's back at regular intervals, it's eyes burning with inner fire as it lashed around the enclosure it was trapped within. The page had more pictures on it, each with descriptions of the species of dragons that were there, the Swedish Short Snout, the more timid Welsh Green, the Chinese Fireball that was living up to it's name in it's picture, and a few other species, including the beautiful Antipodean Opaleye, the poisonous Peruvian Hypertooth,the incredibly dangerous Hungarian Horntail, and the absolutely _massive_ Ukrainian Ironbelly.

Ruby did her best to hide her excitement at the dragons, the unicorns were cool and all, but dragons are so much cooler! They breathe fire! According to the book though, they couldn't be trained, so they were contained on reserves in different locations such as Sweden, Romania, Hebrides, and Wales. Ruby wasn't familiar with any of those places...at all. She sighed, why couldn't this place at least _look_ like Remnant!? She's asked the Professor that had brought them here last night if there were any Grimm, but all she'd gotten was wide eyes and a frightened look when she'd explained what they were. It would seem that while they didn't have Grimm (which both relieved and disappointed the young girl), they did have large monsters such as these that they used for potion ingredients, food, and clothing. It was rather odd, but Ruby shrugged it off, _everything_ about this place was odd. From the shape of it's continents, to the absence of Grimm, and it's lack of Faunus. Ruby thought the last two the weirdest. She was in a world where Grimm didn't exist, and every corner of this "Earth" (Which was a really terrible name for a planet, it's named after dirt? Seriously?) was inhabited.

Ruby shook off the odd thoughts and returned to the point of why she was here. Ruby looked at Blake with pleading eyes, and prepared to ask what she wanted of her in the first place. "Hey Blake?" Ruby asked quietly.

Blake stopped reading her book, almost sure Ruby was going to ask something of her, she figured it best to pay full attention to her young leader. "Yes Ruby?" Blake replied, turning around to look her in the eye, now noticing Ruby's wide pleading eyes, she internally sighed, she was going to ask something of her, and if the look on her face indicated anything, she'd probably want help.

Ruby nervously pushed her index fingers together, she knew Blake wouldn't really mind going to a library, it was just, she hated asking stuff of her team that wasn't necessarily, well, necessary. Regardless of that though, Ruby asked for Blake's assistance anyways. "Well Blake, you see, I was going to go down to the library, and hopefully learn about this tournament I'm apparently stuck in, and I would love if you would help, I'll reaaaaaaalllly need it." Ruby asked quickly, earning a small smirk from Blake.

"Of course Ruby, I'll gladly help, let's go get breakfast, and then we can go to the library and find what we can on this tournament." Blake got up, made sure she marked her place in her book and snapped it shut before standing up and following Ruby out the door.

Ruby looked around rather helplessly, "Uhhhh Blake, you wouldn't happen to know the way back to the Hall place, would you?" She asked rather sheepishly.

Blake just smiled good naturedly before nodding and taking the lead, leading her down the stairs, and towards the smell of food that her enhanced senses picked up from where they were.

* * *

Team JNPR got some weird looks as students filed into the Great Hall for Breakfast, probably because they weren't there the night before, plus the fact three of them were sleeping on the floor, and only one of them was awake. Jaune looked up tiredly at the students trailing in, holding his sword tightly, and a call to arms at his lips should they prove a threat. They didn't look like fighters, but then again neither did Ruby at first glance, and she could, and had, wiped the floor with his face more than once back in Beacon. However, he quickly noticed they were simply eating their breakfast...that magically appeared in front of them.

Jaune also noticed a certain sweet smell that was sure to cause all of his team to awaken in three...two...one...

"Pancakes?!" Nora shouted as the smell reached her nose. Ren sat up tiredly, shaking his head at the loss of sleep, Pyrrha simply sat up and checked her weapons, running on auto-pilot as her eyes scanned the room carefully.

Of course, as luck would have it, this was twelve hours after they were sent to Hogwarts, which meant Ozpin would be appearing soon. Jaune was about to speak this thought aloud, when the white swirl of energy opened and their headmaster stepped through as if nothing was abnormal about the situation at all. He cast a cursory glance at the students and teachers, before seemingly disregarding them as threats and spoke directly to Jaune.

"Well Mr. Arc, it's good to see that you did in fact make it here safely, and that there were no" he looked around the room casually, "hostilities. I take it that your mission has been going well?" He asked, a slight hint of curiosity seeping into his voice.

Jaune immediately stood straighter at being addressed and nodded, "Y-Yes sir!" he exclaimed, trying not to sound panicked. "We met team RWBY last night, and they're alright" he said, trying not to sound overly formal or scared, which was proving a little hard with Professor Ozpin's critical eye cast on him.

Ozpin for his part merely nodded, and sipped his coffee once again, before leaning on his cane a little more. "Well, would you know if I could speak with them? I'd like to know from Miss Rose's mouth how exactly they ended up here." He saw a black bow wading through the crowd of students that had amassed at the Headmaster's entrance, and smirked ever so slightly. "Miss Belladona?" He called out, "Would you happen to know where I could find Miss Rose?" This was answered when the aforementioned girl sped out of the crowd, no longer caring about the students in front of them, merely yelling out an apology to them as she emerged in the front.

"Reporting here sir!" Ruby called out in an overly formal manner, ecstatic, but nervous at the Professor's entrance.

Ozpin hid a smile behind his coffee mug, he'd always had a soft spot where Miss Rose was concerned, hence why he'd sent Glynda over another Huntsman to find and bring back team RWBY. "Miss Rose, if you would, please tell me how exactly you came to be in this..." he looked around again, noticing the youth of the people occupying the hall, and the looks on the faces of the people at the highest table and ventured a guess, "school."

Ruby immediately told Ozpin what had brought her here, telling him what she'd told Professor Goodwitch and Jaune, being sure to not leave a single detail out, especially the one about the contract that could very well kill her if she were to leave without competing. Ozpin merely nodded after her explanation of the situation. He'd been joined by Professor Goodwitch during this, and noted the slight relaxing around her eyes, indicating her relief that he had made it here.

"Well, if you're stuck here, I doubt that your team will leave without you" he noticed three heads shaking vehemently at this, "and I doubt team JNPR will want to leave either," he cast his gaze over them and noticed their determined looks, before coming to a decision, "Teams RWBY and JNPR will stay at this Hogwarts, and continue their studies until this tournament's completion, provided that the Headmaster approves of this, of course?" Professor Ozpin looked at the older man for the first time, who merely had a curious eyebrow raised.

Dumbledore knew that if he wanted to garner favor with the girl, he'd need to appease her in some way, and this seemed to be one of the best ways to do it. He stood up and smiled widely, "Of course, Professor Ozpin, I'll gladly host these students and their teacher for Ruby's benefit, if nothing else" he made sure to phrase it as though he'd be doing Miss Potter a favor, and sat back down, pleased with his maneuver.

Ozpin however, noticed this phrasing, but figured here wasn't the time, nor place, to discuss this. He simply nodded and played oblivious for now, turning back towards his Deputy and the two teams who would be here for the time being. "Very well then, it's settled" he told the nine people standing before him. "Professor Goodwitch will instruct you until the tournament's conclusion, and we'll bring you all back to Beacon immediately afterwards" he looked at the eight of them sternly. "You'll be representing Beacon Academy, another dimension, or not, you are to uphold your school's reputation, and show that you deserved your place at our prestigious academy, understood?" All of them nodded back firmly, Jaune a little nervously, he noted, the boy must be worried about his transcripts. He knew they were fake, but he'd proven himself so far, so he hadn't felt the need to expel him from his school.

"Very well then, I should get back, I have a rather important meeting with the General to attend to" he turned, and with a wave of his cane, and extremely tight concentration, the portal re-opened and Ozpin walked back through, leaving a very shocked student body, eight happy teenagers, and a slightly agitated Glynda.

Glynda sighed as Ozpin left, and turned towards her students while looking down at her scroll, moving different names and timetables around, planning out their schedule. She finally spoke after a few seconds of this, "You eight will be joining me outside on the grounds tomorrow for sparring practice, immediately after breakfast, at 9:00 AM sharp, understood?"

The eight of them nodded and the students at this point seemed even more interested in what had just happened, and were clearly listening for any information on what this "sparring" was all about, some far more subtly than others however.

"So, that was a thing" Yang said out loud, having walked in right after Professor Ozpin had arrived. This of course, killed the mood in the Hall, and caused the majority to groan, and the rest to either go back to eating, or look at Yang rather quizzically. Yang, for her part, simply smiled and walked to the end of the Gryffindor table, where Blake, Ruby, and Weiss had already sat down, and team JNPR was coming over to join them.

At first, the eight were rather quickly set upon by students wanting to meet Ruby, but left her alone after a combination of Weiss' glyphs, and Yang's eyes turning red, and hair smoldering sufficiently cowed them. Ruby simply hid in her hood until they went away, wishing she had a way to become invisible. Once they did, she just ate as quickly as possible, and waited impatiently for Blake outside the Hall, hopping from foot to foot, for once actually wanting to go to the library.

Blake came out a few minutes later, a small smile on her face when she saw Ruby's relief that she'd finally came out. They walked away from the Hall, asking the portraits for directions to the library, and feeling quite silly while doing so, but getting results nonetheless. Ruby followed Blake as she quickly, and subconsciously, found the most secluded table, in the most secluded corner of the library.

* * *

Meanwhile, a girl with bushy brown hair and slightly large front teeth was going to hide in the library as well. Her friends...well acquaintances really, in Ravenclaw were most likely going to be using their private library in their common room for studying for Flitwick and McGonagall's tests next week, and Fay Dunbar, the only person she'd really gotten along with in Gryffindor wasn't much of a studying person, so she walked over to her usual table, only to find it occupied.

Occupied by an odd girl with a black bow, and _Ruby Potter_ , the savior of the wizarding world, she very quickly went to find another table, but saw the majority of them becoming occupied with exchange students who either looked at the library impassively, impressively, or with a sneer, in the case of a few Beauxbaton's students. The girl gulped as she went back over to the table, and shifting very uncomfortably, went to ask if she could sit at the table that almost every wizard and witch's idol was sitting at.

She walked up very hesitantly, keeping her eyes averted from the small hooded girl at all times, who looked to be flipping through _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,_ by Newt Scamander, looking rather enthralled if the gasps and excited noises she made were any indicator. She instead looked over to the girl dressed in black and white, with the dangerous looking sword on her back ( _Is that a GUN attached to it!?)_ , and took a breath before she spoke. "Um, Excuse me?" she asked quietly, but the girl appeared to have heard her, as one eye went from reading her book about the Triwizard Tournament to examining her warily, as if expecting her to either squeal, or ramble on at her friend.

"Can I help you?" The girl asked quietly, but warily.

She simply nodded and continued on, screwing up her Gryffindor courage and plowing right through the problem. "Can I sit at this table?" She asked quickly, noticing the other girl's mouth about to move, she went on to amend this, not wanting to think she just wanted to be seen near Ruby. "I mean, pretty much every other table is taken, and I don't really have any friends who would come study with me, so I normally sit here, and I was just wondering if you'd mind terribly if I were to use this place while you were here? I promise I won't interrupt your studying" she said very quickly and in one breath.

The girl seemed to mull it over, but Ruby seemed to decide for her, apparently far more friendly than she had seemed at first. The younger girl nodded energetically, motioning to the unoccupied end of the table. "Sure! Knock yourself out friend!" She said happily, but quietly, causing the girl to smile, if only slightly, before setting her book down at the end of the table and flipping it open.

She was rather content, to just sit and bask in the silence of the library, where no Slytherins would dare to come pick on her in fear of Madame Pince's wrath should they be caught talking or damaging anything in _her_ library. Of course this wasn't to last, as Ruby seemed to want to be better acquainted with her new arrival.

"Sooooo" Ruby asked slowly, "what's your name?" she asked curiously, but not unkindly.

She was rather shocked that the famous Ruby Potter would ask her for _her_ name, being the bushy haired, buck toothed, bookworm that she was, but she smiled slightly as she answered nonetheless. "Hermione, Hermione Granger" she said happily, pleased that this celebrity would want something so mundane as a muggle-born's name.

Ruby smiled widely at the girl's answer, and replied back with a very chipper, "I'm Ruby!" and very quickly added, "Rose! Ruby Rose, not Potter like everyone seems to be so intent upon making me be called!" Hermione looked at her quizzically, but didn't ask, she didn't have the right to just yet, having just met her. However, Ruby did seem to feel the need to introduce her friend. "And this is Blake! Blake Belladonna!" She added happily, the aforementioned girl simply waved casually as she continued pouring over her book, an eyebrow raising in question every few minutes, or a lip curling in disgust at what she read.

They continued in silence for the next few minutes until Blake threw down the book on the Triwizard Tournament onto the table in disgust. Ruby jumped and eeped, her hand going to Crescent Rose on her back before she regained her senses and realized it was only Blake getting frustrated, and Hermione nearly fell out of her chair. Ruby looked at her in question, and Hermione looked at her like she'd grown a second head for throwing a book.

"Blake?" Ruby ventured carefully, slightly afraid of what could have possibly caused her to react this way, "What was in that book that made you so angry?" Blake simply looked at Ruby with a righteous fury in her eyes that she hadn't seen since Blake had gotten obsessed over Torchwick's involvement with the White Fang.

"Ruby" Blake said, an anger that few had ever heard quivering in her voice, "pretty much everyone who has ever participated in this tournament have _died_ as a result!" She said angrily, clearly disgusted that they would host such a thing for _children_.

"Oh" Ruby said weakly. Hermione herself looked extremely horrified as well.

Yang really wasn't going to like this.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, here's chapter four of Ruby Potter! I hope you enjoyed it! I'll be including a fight scene involving a team on team battle for combat class next chapter! I decided to go ahead and make small references of Ruby's attraction to Weiss, seeing as how White Rose won the poll, and I'll probably be doing the same for Weiss to Ruby. I'm trying to make it occur somewhat naturally, culminating around the Yule Ball, which was the whole reason for a pairing anyways.**

**Chapter 5 coming soon!**


	5. Chapter 5

"They _what!?_ " Yang exclaimed, her eyes turning red as she took the book from Blake's hand and read the passage herself. "The Triwizard tournament was cancelled after the events of the Tragedy of 1792, due to the high death toll." Yang threw the book over to Weiss, who looked rather shocked as well, the rage on her face was palpable as she read through the book, flipping through the different tasks over the seven hundred years this "tournament" took place.

Weiss' lips curled in disgust as she was handed another book by Ruby simply titled _Triwizard Tragedies_. "They had to write a _book_ about the multiple deaths!?" Weiss shrieked, obviously appalled at the mere idea of it. She quickly skimmed through it, seeing multiple copies of newspaper clippings of the different tragedies, she muttered as she read, "Cockatrice tragedy of 1509, all three champions killed in first task. Lethifold murders last champion in 1615. Three champions die in third task in 1650.." she trailed off, turning slightly green as she continued.

Yang however, was shaking. "How..HOW COULD THEY KEEP THIS GOING!?" she screamed,her hair acquiring a very dangerous looking flame that licked at the walls of the castle as she thought of what she would do to the idiot who would reinstate this..death trap that her sister was trapped in. She started stomping off in the direction she'd seen the Headmaster of this place headed, assuming it must lead to his office.

Ruby very quickly ran up to her and grabbed her by the waist. Yang turned around and looked at her sister, an angry, yet quizzical look crossing her face. "Yang, where are you going?" Ruby asked, not wanting her sister to get in trouble. She was stuck in this thing either way, she needed Yang to be there for her and help her! Not going off to beat someone up, no matter how much they deserved it...

Yang looked at her like it was obvious, "I'm going to go beat up on the Headmaster until he cancels this stupid tournament!" She half answered, half shouted as she struggled out of her sister's grasp, before continuing on her war path in the general direction of the man that was hosting this event.

Ruby however, wouldn't have it. "Yang! Come back! If he could cancel it, I'm sure he would have found a way, but he obviously can't! I need you to help me train for this!" She called after her, before realizing something she REALLY should have realized earlier. "The people here don't use aura like we do! I'm sure I can take whatever they might throw at me! I'm not a weakling Yang, I don't need to be protected from this, I just need help" she shot in front of her sister, who had stopped when Ruby had said she needed her help. Yang was all of a sudden faced with a very large set of Ruby puppy dog eyes, which she'd normally be able to resist long enough to get away from her, but in her emotional state at the moment, Yang could only do one thing.

She took a deep breath, calmed down, and hugged her. "I know you don't need to be protected Ruby, but can you blame me for worrying about you?" Yang asked quietly as she leaned back from the embrace, a small smile on her face. She knew she'd overreacted, but her sister was stuck in some kind of _death_ tournament, could anyone really blame her?

Ruby simply giggled at her sister's quick change in emotion and simply responded, "Nope!"

Ruby led Yang back over to Weiss and Blake, and only then noticed Hermione standing there with her eyes wide, and her mouth hanging open. "If you don't mind me asking..." she started, noticing the stares from the group, none of them were accusatory, but in Hermione's mind, she'd felt she had just intruded upon something she shouldn't have. "What was that?" She finished lamely, ready to run if they were in fact mad at her. She'd assumed they were witches as well, naturally because they were within Hogwarts wards and could see the castle as what it really was, at the very least they were squibs, but that display had just thrown that theory out the window.

Yang chuckled sheepishly at Hermione's stare but answered confidently as she explained what just happened to her. "It's my semblance!" Yang noticed the blank stare Hermione was giving her at this point. "Uhhh, you know, power of the soul?" Another questioning look. Yang started to get agitated now. "Do you people not know what aura is!?" Yang said confusedly as she noticed Hermione shake her head. "Oh for Dust's sake! Blake?" She turned towards the faunus who looked at her for a moment, before rolling her eyes and nodding. Yang flung her arms up in the air in triumph. "Thanks Blakey!"

Blake rolled her eyes once more before she started her explanation of aura to the only person she'd ever met with the same love for books as her. "Aura is the manifestation of our soul" she began simply, noting Hermione's confused nod, she'd have to go into more detail later. "Through our aura, we manifest a semblance" she continued slowly, noticing Hermione's interest slowly increasing as she went along, "this semblance can do all sorts of things, Yang's activates causes her to seemingly catch fire when she's angry, and Ruby's allows her to go extremely fast, as you've already witnessed" Hermione nodded again, seemingly appeased for now. "Understand better now?" Hermione nodded one last time.

"Good" Weiss cut in, "because I believe Ruby has a LOT of studying on this _tournament"_ she spat the word like it was poison, "to do in order for her to get through it in one piece." With that, Weiss grabbed Ruby's hood and dragged her back towards the library where they'd just came from shortly before Yang had been informed of the Triwizard's risks. Ruby sighed with defeat and batted Weiss' hand away from her hood and followed behind her with her head hung low.

"Yes Weiss" Ruby replied dutifully, but she didn't feel as depressed about studying with Weiss as she normally did. _"I mean I DO like spending time with Weiss, so it can't be THAT bad"_ she thought as she followed her white themed partner, her head no longer hung, nearly skipping as she headed back towards the library.

Yang noticed this odd behavior from Ruby and smiled slightly at the new teasing material she was being given, thankful for something to occupy her mind while she accepted the fact Ruby would be in a tournament where, more than once, all three participants had _died horribly_.

And wasn't that just a wonderful thought?

While Ruby and Weiss spent the rest of the day in the library however, Yang decided she needed to fight something or someone in order to get her anger out so she didn't commit first degree murder when she found the person who put her name in that goblet.

Not that she wouldn't beat the man senseless before turning him in that is.

She remembered that old Professor lady had mentioned a Forbidden Forest, that sounded like a great place to blow off some steam!

With that in mind, she ran off towards the castle's main doors and headed out towards the forest, intent on getting some...practical research done on this place.

* * *

Blake watched her team walk off impassively, she shrugged as they left and went to go back to their suite in order to read the other books she'd gathered, they weren't very heavy books in her opinion, but they were worth reading all the same to her, she wanted-no _needed_ to learn more about this world that she and her team were going to be stuck in for the time being. However, her peaceful afternoon wasn't allowed to begin just yet, as she heard a nervous stutter behind her that she knew belonged to their new friend, Hermione.

"U-um, why do you have almost all first year textbooks, Blake?" Hermione asked shyly, she hadn't really made any _real_ friends since she'd came here, only being passing acquaintances with a few Ravenclaws, and she only had a tentative friendship with Fay Dunbar, and that was based on not wanting to listen to her other roommates, Lavender and Parvati, gossip all night while they were trying to sleep, study, or read. So, needless to say, meeting a girl who clearly loved to read as much as she did, was like a dream come true for her, especially since Blake's opinion of her wasn't clouded by a petty House rivalry or stereotype.

Blake simply raised an eyebrow as she scanned the texts she had grabbed, she'd wanted to start simple, hopefully becoming accustomed to the terminology of their world before she went off and started reading some far more interesting books she'd seen on the shelves, including more than one on different types of sentient magical creatures. She wanted to see if this world treated different species of people any different than humanity treated the faunus on Remnant.

Somehow, she doubted it, what with the murmurings she'd overheard about "Half breeds, Mud bloods, Half bloods, and Pure bloods", whatever those meant. Either way, she needed to become acquainted to this world's vocabulary before she could come to a conclusion on what she was doing, and what better way than asking someone who'd become accustomed? Blake smiled to herself, it WOULD save time, and she would be able to read the more advanced books faster, so why not?

"Well, since my team and I are new here, I grabbed the more basic books in order to learn the vocabulary and the way way this world works, however, if you'd be willing to help, I could just use it for pleasure reading" she said pleasantly, noticing how Hermione's face lit up as she was asked for help, Blake thought she had either done something very right...or very _very_ wrong.

* * *

That night saw the girls of team RWBY meeting back up in their guest suite in various states of energy. Ruby and Weiss were nearly sleeping on their feet, having scoured the library all day researching the tournament. Blake was currently engrossed in a book on Veela, people with a magical allure that draws men in with it's charming and tempting effects. Yang however, seemed to be the most energetic out of all of them. Having blown off her steam in the Forbidden Forest whilst everyone else was off doing their own things.

"Alright..." Ruby yawned tiredly as she focused on acting like a leader for the next few minutes until she could experience that soft fluffy bed again. "Team RWBY! What did we learn today? Weiss and I'll go first!" Ruby said, before having Weiss go over the different things they'd learned.

"The first task of this...spectacle" Weiss began, not wanting to call it a tournament with it's atrocities. "Normally involves a dangerous magical creature, so Ruby and I found multiple books on the most dangerous ones you could find in this place, and continued studying after we did so." She took a breath before continuing, "The second task seems to usually have some form of puzzle involved, or an environmental hazard of some kind, which we can't exactly study for, which makes this task the hardest to prepare for beforehand." Weiss looked slightly agitated at this revelation.

"However," she said, perking up again as she started to speak, "the third task seems to have some sort of face off against the rest of the champions" Weiss seemed back to her usual self now, having gone over the most agitating parts of their study. "All this means now is, we need to" she paused here, not wanting to say the word most would use as she was above that,"observe the other champions, and learn what we can from their mannerisms and actions so we will have the advantage" she finished eloquently.

"So in other words, you're going to help Ruby study and spy on the other champions?" Blake asked bluntly. Weiss turned red from embarrassment at being seen through, and slight indignation from being told so so bluntly.

Ruby however, just wanted to sleep, so she very quickly defused the situation by addressing Blake. "So, what did you do today Blake?" Ruby asked tiredly, yet kindly.

Blake smirked at Ruby's obvious defusing of the coming argument, but spoke anyways. "I learned what I could about this world, and if you thought Humanity back home was unkind to the Faunus" she paused and shook her head at the idiocy of the people here, "then you've seen nothing yet." She took a deep breath to calm her inner activist and began speaking, "Those House Elves we saw when we first appeared here yesterday? They're glorified slaves" this was met with a gasp from Ruby, a scowl from Weiss and narrowed eyes from Yang. "They're bound to a family for their entire lives unless freed by being given clothes, and only then are they allowed to do as they please, but that's not all, they treat anyone who isn't completely human as beneath them, talking to them like they shouldn't exist or talking down to them!" Blake held her breath and calmed down, not wanting to start screaming and possibly draw attention to themselves.

Ruby seemed to notice this however, as she swiftly went over to Yang and asked her how her day went.

"Oh you know," Yang replied in a lively tone, "I got angry at that book, and the Headmaster, and went and blew off some steam in that Forbidden Forest place just outside the school grounds" she smiled, "those giant spider things don't hold a candle to the Grimm!" Yang boasted as she pumped her fist in the air. "I met some half horse guy as well" Yang started, only to be interrupted by Blake.

"Centaur" she corrected as Yang stuck her tongue out at her.

"Fine, a centaur, named Firenze, I think, he spoke in some odd riddles though, saying that Mars was shining strong since our arrival and that it bodes war or something" she shrugged, "he seemed kinda off to me. I left the forest not long after that and just explored the grounds around the castle" Yang's face lit up in her signature grin, "It's huge! It's gotta have more room than Beacon's campus! There's so much room to spar in, we're not limited by the arena here!" Yang cried happily as she thought of the possibilities, quickly joined in by the exhausted Ruby.

However, Ruby's daydream wasn't to last long, as she began nodding off and landed face first into an end table,which knocked some sense into her long enough to stand up and realize what she'd done. Thankful she hadn't done it in front of anyone other than her team she smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck. "I'm fine! Perfectly fine!" she said quickly, noticing Yang's concerned gaze as she looked at her sister. "Team meeting" she said loudly, "Adjourned!" She cried happily as she slumped back down tiredly. "I'll see you guys in the morning, goodnight!" With that, she used her semblance to dash into her room and crash on the bed, asleep before her head hit the pillow.

* * *

The next morning went much calmer than the one previous, team RWBY met team JNPR in the Great Hall and sat across from each other at the Gryffindor table like they did back in Beacon, their seating arrangements with their "sister team" becoming nearly routine for the eight students. Aside from a few stares and mutters as they sat down though, Ruby hadn't had to deal with her so called "fame" today, which the girl was very happy for.

After breakfast, the two teams quickly made their way out onto the grounds, paying no mind to the crowd following them. They went out next to the lake where Professor Goodwitch had told them to wait and began checking their weapons and doing their warm ups as they waited for class to begin.

The students of Hogwarts, despite having been there when Ruby had deployed her weapon and threatened their Headmaster with it had involuntarily stepped back when she pulled out her "sweetheart" and started twirling it around like it was a baton, a few of them thought they would go deaf when they heard the weapon's reports as she shot rounds away from them towards the forest, and a fair few thought their hero was a psychopath when she actually managed to _cut down the tree with her bullets_.

However their exercises ended rather quickly after that, their teacher Professor Goodwitch, (a few students snickered at the name, until they were the subject of a Glynda death glare),showing up to monitor their combat class as she set up her scroll to monitor their auras.

When she was done she looked up from her scroll to see at least fifty students of this school and another three teachers, an extremely short one she hadn't met yet, the potions instructor, Professor Snape, and the school's own Deputy Headmistress, Professor McGonagall. Glynda had gotten along with the woman so far, their stern natures towards the children they instructed giving them something to converse about. Clearly these people had no idea how...large, fights got with team RWBY (Or any team of Huntsmen for that matter), she decided she would let them find out for themselves as she started to address her students in her normal professional tone.

"Team RWBY, Team JNPR, please step forward and take your ready positions, this will be a team on team tournament style battle, only ending when the other team's auras are all in the red, understand?" She said sternly, she got eight short nods as they got in their ready positions, Jaune across from Weiss, Pyrrha across from Ruby, Blake across from Ren, and Nora across from Yang. "Draw your weapons!"

The eight students did so.

"Fight!"

* * *

Ruby smiled slightly as Pyrrha took up a defensive position straight from the start, obviously having learned from watching her fight in the spars back at Beacon. However, Ruby wasn't gunning for Pyrrha at the beginning of this match, knowing it would be rather dumb to do so. Ruby was good, but even she didn't hold a candle to Pyrrha Nikos. So she dashed away from her, not wanting to get into a melee with her at the beginning of their battle.

So instead, she decided to start the fight off on the right foot with her team. She looked over to Weiss who was currently making a laughing stock out of the opposing team's leader and shouted, "Freezerburn!" Weiss nodded without hesitation and broke off from beating Jaune's behind into the ground, turning her rapier's cylinder to it's Ice chamber and stabbing it into the hard ground.

The Hogwarts students looked at Weiss oddly at this, they had been enjoying watching her beat the other guy senseless, however, their confusion didn't last long as Yang had jumped into the air with the aid of her gauntlets and punched the layer of ice that had appeared from the end of Weiss' rapier. Their view was obscured, but they could still hear the battle inside the fog as they fought, the sounds of clashing steel becoming deafening.

Ruby nodded in satisfaction as the fog rose up from the point of impact, knowing that her teammates couldn't see it, but that was kind of the point. So instead she used her aura to help her sense where Blake was while she had the advantage of the mist and dashed over to her sister's partner. Noting that it was fading fast and that they needed to move quickly.

"Blake!" She called quietly, using her teammate's enhanced hearing to her advantage. Her teammate responded by turning her head towards Ruby slightly, one eye watching should Nora, Ren, or god forbid, Pyrrha hear or see her. "Ladybug on Ren when the fog clears, got it?" Her only response was a short nod and Blake fixing her stance as the mist faded into the cool morning air. Ruby took a quick breath as she picked out Ren's figure in a defensive stance in the distance.

Three.

The mist was nearly gone now.

Two.

Ren wasn't looking at them, this could be an advantage.

One.

"Now!" Ruby called out, Blake shooting forward without hesitation as she and Ruby double teamed Team JNPR's martial artist.

Ruby's scythe blocked one blade of Storm Flower almost effortlessly as Ruby fired Crescent Rose, using the recoil to swing around and land behind Ren as Blake shot forward towards his sides. Ren noticed this rather quickly, but knew he could only really block one of the girls and sighed as the two charged towards him far quicker than he could block.

That's not to say he didn't try though, he dashed out of Blake's line of fire and fired his machine pistols at her, hoping they would slow her down, but all he got in response was Blake blocking his rounds with Gambol Shroud's sheathe and blade. However, his aim was thrown off completely as Ruby's blade nailed him in the back, sending him stumbling forwards as Blake dashed towards him and began smacking his now off balance body around with her two blades, he was then knocked out of the fight by Ruby swinging Crescent Rose into him, knocking him down with the blade guard.

"Lie Ren is out of the fight!" Professor Goodwitch called out from the sidelines, noticing the looks of shock and wide eyed stares her students were getting. She couldn't help but feel slightly proud at the performance of team RWBY. However, she quickly turned her thoughts back towards the fight, noticing Miss Schnee now dodging around Miss Nikos' gunfire as she held back Mister Arc.

This was an interesting fight indeed.

Ruby nodded at Blake with a smile on her face, getting a smirk and nod from her teammate which was cut off as Nora came slamming down on Blake's blades in anger at her partner being knocked out of the fight.

"You hurt Ren!" Nora called out, an uncharacteristic frown on her face. "For that, I'll break your legs!" She shouted, causing multiple students watching to wince and back off even more from the "Spar" they were watching.

Ruby looked over and saw Weiss' predicament with both Pyrrha and Jaune attacking her and decided she needed her help far more than Blake and Yang did. Yang seemed to realize this as well as she threw a punch into Nora's back as she bared down on Blake with her hammer. Ruby nodded to herself as she rushed over to Weiss using her semblance, batting Jaune back as she did so.

"Weiss! Focus on blocking or dodging Pyrrha's shots for now, I'll take care of Jaune really quick, then I'll come back and help you!" She called out, getting an affirmative from her partner.

Ruby dashed over to Jaune, kicking off his shield to dodge a strike from his sword as she did so. She felt kind of bad for this, but she wanted to win, and Jaune was on the other team, so she swung Crescent Rose from over her shoulder, breaking Jaune's guard as she got in close, inverting it so Jaune wouldn't take the pointy end of Crescent Rose to his chin.

"Sorry Jaune!" Ruby cried out as she smashed the butt end of her scythe's large blade into the boy's chin, sending him flying upwards and into the lake nearby.

"Jaune Arc is removed from battle by ring out!" Ruby heard her Professor call out over the commotion of Yang and Nora's firefight.

Ruby quickly rejoined Weiss, doing her best to avoid her weapon coming into contact with Pyrrha until she or Weiss could get a knockout hit on her. Weiss seemed to have the same idea as she was purely dodging and avoiding Pyrrha's weapon at all costs without using her weapon to do so. Ruby sighed as she realized this would be the hardest fight of them all, and she needed Weiss to not be exhausted from dodging as she did so, so she did the only thing she could in this situation.

She collapsed her sweetheart and jumped in front of Weiss and diverted Pyrrha's attention with semblance enhanced kicks and punches, which were blocked effortlessly by the Invincible Girl.

"Team RWBY!" Ruby called out over the sound of the battle, her voice carrying throughout the field. "Checkmate into Bumblebee on Nora!" She got out as she took her first hit of the match, Pyrrha's shield, as it made contact with her face.

Weiss inwardly winced but knew Ruby could, at the very least, distract Pyrrha long enough for rest of team RWBY to take down team JNPR's next to last fighter.

Weiss quickly fired off the required glyph at the ground underneath Blake, causing the familiar clock faces to appear underneath her teammate as Blake seemed to speed up and Gambol Shroud struck Nora multiple times as the glyph took effect upon the girl within it's area of effect. Nora was thrown around and down to the ground, but got up with a look of concentration on her face as the glyph faded and Nora gunned straight for the heiress.

Only to get hit into the crowd by Yang's fist as she was swung around by the ribbon of Blake's weapon.

"Nora Valkyrie is taken down by ring out!" Their professor's voice called out from the sidelines as the members of team RWBY formed up around Pyrrha who looked uncharacteristically intense, concentrating on the fight far more than she normally did.

With a swing and kick she had practiced to perfection long before her acceptance to Beacon, Pyrrha's boot came crashing into Blake's face as she ducked underneath a shot from the team's brawler. Blake was thrown to the ground clutching her stomach.

"Blake Belladonna is disqualified by low aura!"

Ruby audibly sighed this time, and came close to cussing in exasperation, but stopped at the last moment, not wanting to give her team another distraction. Ruby quickly ran her team's moves through her head, and came down to two that she could use, and settled on the one that utilized the remaining members of her team, but easily had the worst name.

Seriously, that was the last time she asked for Yang's advice on a combo name.

She sighed inwardly once again as she called it out, though maybe it would confuse Pyrrha for a crucial moment. So with that thought, Ruby took a deep breath as she ducked under another one of Pyrrha's swings and called out;

"Bee's Schnees!"

As she did, she heard a barely audible sigh of irritation from Weiss, and saw a huge grin form on Yang's face as she shot forward with the assistance of both her semblance and a Glyph from Weiss, she redeployed Crescent Rose in mid-air as Yang was propelled upwards by a combination of her gauntlets and a second glyph from Weiss. She knew this would be Weiss' last move in the battle and hoped that it would be enough to end it.

Weiss panted from the exertion but schooled her features gained from years of practice and used one of the last glyphs that she would be able to summon before she would collapse from exhaustion. She shot forward, straight towards Pyrrha, seemingly charging her head on, but at the last moment the second half of the combination ignited and sent Weiss up and over Pyrrha, another glyph appearing under her feet as she ended up behind her opponent, with Yang rocketing towards Pyrrha's head and Ruby coming from the side at full speed. She smirked as she fired forward, her rapier just barely scraping against Pyrrha's aura as she rocketed past her and came to a momentary stop just past her.

She took a crucial second to allow Yang and Ruby's attacks to commence before she could finish the fight, watching with a mix of concern and trepidation as Ruby's scythe hooked on Pyrrha's shield.

Before Pyrrha could do anymore however, Ruby fired her scythe's rifle and used the momentum to flip over Pyrrha and land on the other side just as Yang's descent ended on the opponent's head. Weiss took a short breath, this was her cue, she just hoped it would work and she wouldn't embarrass herself.

She used another acceleration glyph on the ground beneath her as she shot forward, using her increased speed to cause a multitude of glyphs to come into existence around Pyrrha as she shot past her, landing on the first in the series.

Weiss kicked off, shooting past Pyrrha and scraping her aura as she landed on the next one, using it to fly above Pyrrha and firing a lance of fire dust at the girl below her as she landed on the glyph just above Pyrrha and flew past her again, repeating the process from almost every direction as Pyrrha was dazed from a mix of Ruby and Yang's earlier attacks.

Weiss landed on the last glyph in the line, her hair stuck to her forehead with sweat as she shot into Pyrrha with the last of her energy and very nearly collapsed as she landed behind her, panting.

"Weiss Schnee is eliminated due to low aura!"

Weiss sighed, she knew that was coming, but she held her breath, hoping that their last attack had been enough.

"Pyrrha Nikos is out due to aura depletion! Team RWBY is the victor!"

Weiss smiled just before her head met the ground again.

* * *

**A/N: Boom, there, have a bit more exposition, and a fight scene! I'll probably be hitting the First Task soon, I just wanted Ruby to have a chance to get used to the world around her before she's up against a frigging dragon.**

**I'm not very good at fight scenes, I hope it's not confusing to read, but I just had to include the ship name for Yang x Weiss x Ruby, it was too perfect an opportunity to pass up.**

**Next chapter will include Diagon Alley, Professor Goodwitch, Professor McGonagall, and Gringotts.**


	6. Chapter 6

Professor McGonagall had to consciously keep her jaw from hanging open after the display she'd just seen in front of her. She had expected Miss Rose (If that's what she'd been called for most of her life, so be it), to be at a huge disadvantage in this tournament, but it would appear she'd been grievously mistaken. She almost smiled at the daughter of two of her favorite students, but figured it would be best to keep up her professional face for a little while longer rather than act too friendly towards the girl, as her Professor seemed extremely wary of anyone that got near Ruby, not that Professor McGonagall could blame them. If she'd been sent to some alternate dimension, then she would be appropriately distrustful as well.

Minerva shook her head to clear the cobwebs that had formed in it and walked to the front of the crowd, the students getting out of her way as she moved, she came to a stop at the edge of their arena and crossed her hands in front of her, waiting patiently for the students to get themselves straightened up before she cleared her throat loudly to gain the attention of their Professor.

"Professor Goodwitch?" Minerva called out, waiting for the woman to finish writing notes on her odd device before she closed it and looked up at her with a single raised eyebrow.

"Yes, Professor McGonagall?" She asked politely, wondering what she wanted.

"I was sent to collect Miss" she paused for a moment, biting down the instinct to say Potter, "Rose and her team to take her to Diagon Alley to gather the most important thing she'll need for the tournament" she said shortly.

"And that would be?" Professor Goodwitch asked, her eyes narrowing and mouth morphing into a frown.

Professor McGonagall answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Why a wand of course."

Ruby looked at the Professor like she was crazy, "Why would I need a wand? I've got Crescent Rose..." she protectively held her sweetheart to her chest as if they were going to take it from her if she let it out of her sight.

Professor McGonagall looked at the weapon with trepidation, she figured that Dumbledore would get her special dispensation for her "weapon" due to her circumstances, but Minerva would really rather prefer her use a wand, if only because it would make the audience- and her, feel better.

Professor Goodwitch narrowed her eyes at had a microscopic frown as she scrutinized the woman, she didn't trust the staff here, especially the Headmaster, he looked at Ruby like he was planning something whenever she was in the same room as him, and she did not like it one bit. She internally sighed and came to a decision, "Alright, they can go" she saw Minerva's nod and intent to walk off with them before she added, "and I will accompany them." The Professor nodded to that and walked up to team RWBY with Professor Goodwitch now in tow.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and got the attention of the four exhausted girls, they looked at her with a quizzical expression in the case of Ruby and Yang, and a single raised eyebrow in the case of Blake and Weiss. "Miss Rose, I've been instructed to take you and your team to the Wizarding World's shopping center, Diagon Alley to get a few items you'll be needing for the tournament, your team and Professor will accompany you as well, now come along, we'll be taking the Floo to our destination, please, follow me. She turned around and began leading them back to the castle with the Beacon residents wondering just what exactly they would be doing.

The Professor eventually led them to her office where she grabbed a small pot from the mantle of her fireplace and took a small pinch of green powder out. she turned back towards the group accompanying her and held it up for them to see. "This is Floo powder, one of the many ways of magical travel in our world. It's use is quite simple" she threw the powder into the fireplace, causing a fire to start and burn green. "You throw the powder into the fire, and then you state your destination, _very_ clearly." The fire died down, leaving the fireplace unlit. "Understand?" The four students nodded uncertainly while Professor Goodwitch looked at her with a critical eyebrow raised.

"Perhaps you should demonstrate, Professor" she said skeptically, not fathoming the idea for a second. Professor McGonagall's lips pressed slightly thinner and she nodded, walking into the fireplace with a handful of green powder.

"It's simple, all you do is state your destination right before you throw down the powder." She began to throw the powder down, "Diagon Alley!" With a roar and a rush of green flames, Professor McGonagall disappeared from her fireplace and presumably reappeared in this "Diagon Alley".

Goodwitch turned around to address Ruby and her team, only to find Ruby already inspecting the powder. "Miss Rose!" Professor Goodwitch called out, Ruby jumped and almost dropped the handful she had, and upon seeing the stern expression on her teacher's face, hid her hand behind her back.

"Eh, heh, heh, Yes Professor Goodwitch?" Ruby asked innocently while slightly sweating at the look on her teacher's face.

"Are you volunteering to go first Miss Rose?" She glared at her with narrowed eyes and a small frown, Ruby sweated and rubbed the back of her head nervously.

"Uh...sure?" Ruby replied nervously, causing Professor Goodwitch to motion with her hand towards the fireplace.

"Then by all means, go ahead" She responded, causing Ruby to walk slowly towards the large fireplace.

Ruby was rather nervous as she stepped into the fireplace, on one hand, she was expecting herself to be burnt but she was team RWBY's leader, she had to go first, it was her duty! So, she steeled herself and put on a confident facade and walked into the rather cavernous fireplace and looked at the green powder in her hand. She absentmindedly noted it felt like Dust before she threw it down and shouted out, "Diagonally!" and disappeared from Professor McGonagall's office...

* * *

And promptly landed on her ass in a dark dingy shop that definitely did _not_ look friendly in the slightest. Ruby unconsciously placed a hand on Crescent Rose and sneaked around the shop, trying her best to stay quiet as to not get herself in trouble for trespassing in someone's store, she really didn't like the idea of what the shopkeeper here might do to her if she got caught.

Assuming he could catch her after she used her semblance of course.

However, it didn't seem like she would need to worry as she found herself outside the door extremely quickly and out into a small cramped alleyway full of rather unkind looking people.

Ruby involuntarily shuddered as she took in the appearances of some of the people in the alleyway. Women with very crooked noses, covered in warts, a person that looked like lady in shape, but it was hard to tell due to the large hood over her head. There were extremely pale people with rather luminescent eyes, ragged looking people who's eyes were switching between a dull defeated color to a bright yellow that were growling as they watched her pass by. Ruby began shouldering through some of the more fragile looking people, pulling up her hood as she did so and began to weave through the people while trying not to panic. She needed to find her way out of here and get herself some kind of map and find out where exactly she was.

Ruby unconsciously flared her aura as she walked past a small group of women holding a tray of what looked like organs and toe nails, noticing that one of the women was looking at the organs hungrily.

Somehow, Ruby doubted it was from an animal.

Apparently the way Ruby was walking, hood up, shifty eyes, and one eye on her weapon were dissuading quite a few people from going after her, but only most, as she was set upon by a pair of leering men that were eyeing her figure hungrily.

Ruby wasn't dumb, she had had the talk, however awkward it was, with her dad and Uncle Qrow, she had also attended the Sex Ed classes at Signal. She also knew the looks she was getting from these men weren't unlike the ones Yang got whenever she was around particularly sleazy men, so she rather quickly got the picture of what was going on here in her head and began formulating plans to get out of it.

 _'Hmmm, I can knock these two out with Crescent Rose and then use my semblance to jump up these two buildings here, that will allow me to escape more hostiles and having to use Crescent Rose in a cramped space, perfect.'_ Ruby thought as she was jostled back to reality by a very disgruntled sounding "Hey you!"

Ruby decided to play oblivious for a second, hoping that the stuff she learned from a mixture of Uncle Qrow and her Dad's stories would work while she prepared for what she saw as an inevitable fight. "Who, me?" Ruby asked innocently, pulling down her hood with her head cocked to the side.

The men seemed to leer at her even more, causing her to involuntarily squirm under their gazes before she hardened her resolve and tightened her subtle hold on Crescent Rose. "Yea...you little girl, you look lost, want some directions?" He asked, his hand tightening around the piece of wood Ruby now identified as a wand, which she knew was a weapon, and weapons being readied meant they were going to hurt you.

Which meant she could fight.

"Oh you know, just wandering around, taking in the sights, fighting off bad guys" she added as she noticed the other man raising his wand towards her.

Ruby activated her scythe, and in a flash and a twirl, Crescent Rose came out to play, easily slicing the two wands like the twigs they were compared to her sweetheart. She smacked the two of them over the head with the blunt end of Crescent Rose, then just as in the plan she had formed in her head had said, she activated her semblance and used the speed to leap off the walls, kicking off them before coming to the roof of a dingy looking shop with a _thud_.

"Pfft that was easy!" Ruby said confidently as she twirled Crescent Rose shut and began scanning the horizon from her vantage point.

The horizon consisting of the sides and rears of other buildings.

However, as Ruby found a clear bit of alley to jump down she saw a street sign pointing behind her that was labelled " _Diagon Alley_ ". She smiled slightly as she began walking up the hill and towards the first real ray of sunshine she'd seen since she'd tumbled into that dingy looking shop.

* * *

Ruby emerged in the sunlight and into the hustle and bustle of what she now assumed was Diagon Alley. Now she she just had to find her team...and Professor Goodwitch.

She was in soooo much trouble.

* * *

Ruby was in soooo much trouble.

After tumbling out of a _fireplace_ of all things, and into an incredibly disgusting pub, she had expected to see their leader standing there waiting for them looking around like a curious puppy, barely able to stay still without the reminder that during this...tournament, they were being counted as on mission, which meant she needed to be acting like a leader.

However, instead of the sight she expected after her..admittedly ungraceful entrance into this pub, she'd gotten the Professor who'd told them to follow her here, and then the rest of her team followed by Professor Goodwitch. Which meant Ruby hadn't made it through.

The dunce could be anywhere if that were the case!

Weiss sighed and pinched her nose, something she'd found herself doing quite often after she'd been placed on team RWBY, not that she would complain, her dunce of a leader may be..well a dunce, but she was rather..endearing, and she had found herself becoming less distant to her partner and even beginning to open up to her when she and Ruby were alone at Beacon. However, that didn't mean she wasn't going to be mad at the dunce for getting herself lost in the first place!

She'd just make sure that she was okay first.

_I hope she's alright, Ruby can't get hurt, she's integral to our team!_

_And to you._

Weiss shook her head, squashing the rebellious thought out of her head, not wanting to deal with the traitorous voice in her head trying to make her deal with her emotions at such an inopportune time as this. She'd go over her feelings for the dunce when they got back to the castle and she was alone. Then she could review her thoughts on her leader.

Even though deep down she already knew how she felt.

* * *

The rest of team RWBY, Professor Goodwitch, and Professor McGonagall found Ruby not long after she'd found her way out of Knock Turn Alley, and after a thorough dressing down by Professor Goodwitch, an icy look and snide comment from Weiss, which hurt a lot more than it should have, along with a rib crushing hug from Yang, Ruby and the rest of the group were in front of a large and imposing white marble building.

"What is this place?" Ruby asked curiously, noticing the rather short armed guards with wicked sharp axes standing by it's entrance. She also noticed, rather disappointingly, that they weren't very talkative, or friendly.

"This" Professor McGonagall said, walking ahead of them and nodding towards the two short guards at the entrance, "is Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Where all the the Witches and Wizards in Britain store their money. It's run by goblins, a warrior race that turned their love of battle towards financial means, and have done a rather wonderful job of doing so." She ushered them ahead as they stepped into the entrance of the bank, the walls were lined with multiple counters, each one having a short person with pointy ears, beady eyes, and gnarly fingers. Ruby figured these were goblins.

"We're here to get some Galleons from Miss Rose's vault" Professor McGonagall said shortly as they got in line. Ruby looked at her quizzically.

"Uhhh, why would I have a vault?" Ruby asked even more curious than before.

The Professor simply smiled, "Why because your parents" she noticed the girl's look turn sour, "your birth parents" she amended quickly, "left you a trust vault before they died that was to be used for your school, and anything you might want to buy with your own money. The Potters weren't as rich as some of the other old families, such as the Malfoys, but they did get royalties from the profits of few different potions, like Sleekeazy's hair potion, and Skelegrow, both of which were invented by a Potter." At this point they finally reached the teller's desk and the goblin didn't even look up to address them.

"What's your business here?" The goblin asked rudely, Weiss made an indignant huff at being addressed so improperly, causing Yang to grin and Ruby to snicker.

Professor McGonagall however, didn't bat an eye, making it seem like this was the norm with these people. "We're here to withdraw some money from Miss Potter's vault" she said, short and to the point.

This time the goblin did look up, rather quickly and looked at the Professor with narrowed eyes. "And does Miss Potter have her key?" he asked shrewdly with something akin to malice in his eyes.

Professor McGonagall reached into her robes and pulled out a small key with the number "687" engraved on it. "Here you go" she said curtly, causing the goblin to snatch it out of her hand and place it upon what at first glance, looked like a small scratch on the desk, but upon closer inspection, would have been identified as an authentication rune, something that would ensure that whatever was placed upon it was the original article, not a copy or a fake.

The goblin waited a moment before the key glowed a slight gold, signifying it's authenticity, he nodded and turned around in his chair. "Griphook!" he bellowed, causing another goblin to come running over from a different door to the counter he'd been summoned to. "Take Miss Potter, her escort, and one other person down to vault 687" he said, prompting the other to nod and begin walking back towards the door he'd been standing near.

Ruby stopped for a quick moment to pick who would go to her vault with her, and after a moment's hesitation- and a very quick game of 'eenie meenie miney mo' she picked Weiss and the two of them, plus Professor McGonagall, followed after the goblin as he briskly walked down multiple confusing hallways until they reached what looked like an old mine cart that the goblin waved for them to enter.

"We're riding in that!?" Weiss asked disbelievingly. The goblin nodded and Professor McGonagall chose to explain from her place in the cart.

"Yes, this is the transport to the deeper vaults, where Miss Rose's trust vault is, now get in or Griphook will leave you behind." she explained, beckoning the heiress to get in. Which Weiss did rather reluctantly.

"This doesn't seem very safe" Weiss said rather timidly, causing Ruby to throw an arm around her shoulder and small blush to creep up her cheeks with how close Ruby was- " _NO! Don't think that way Weiss!"_

"We'll be fine Weiss!" Ruby said grandly, "How bad could it be?"

At this point, Griphook finally pulled the level of the cart, causing it to lurch forward at high speeds, Ruby couldn't even keep track of which way they were going, but due to her semblance, the speed didn't bug her anywhere near as much as it did the other occupants. Weiss seemed fine on the outside though, but Ruby knew she was probably more than a little annoyed, and the Professor looked a bit uneasy, and she couldn't really blame her, if she wasn't basically immune to motion sickness, she'd be feeling a little off right about now as well.

After few minutes of speeding through the cave system they had found themselves in, and waiting for Professor McGonagall to regain her equilibrium, they stepped out of the cart onto solid ground. Griphook jumped out first, handing Weiss the lamp while taking the key from the Professor and walked up to the door with the number "687" etched into it. He flipped up a small cover, revealing a small keyhole and put the equally small golden key into the hole and turned it to the left, causing the door to open with a great lurch, showing the large vault in all it's glory.

It was full of golden coins, silver coins, and bronze ones as well, Ruby's mind immediately went to the stories she'd read as a child, where the adventurer would find the treasure at the end and live the rest of his life a rich man. Not that that really mattered to Ruby, she wanted the adventure.

Professor McGonagall handed Ruby a bag and ushered her into the vault, where she went after grabbing the gobsmacked Weiss' hand and pulling her in after her. "The currency for the Wizarding World is as such, the gold ones are Galleons, the silver ones are Sickles, and the bronze ones are Knuts. There are 29 Knuts to a Sickle, and 17 Sickles to a Galleon, it's rather simple once you get used to it." She explained shortly, and instructed Ruby to take a handful of Sickles and Knuts but only ten or fifteen Galleons.

They hopped back in the cart shortly after they got out of the vault and rode the deathtrap- err, mine cart, back to the surface and headed back into the bank's lobby where they rejoined the rest of team RWBY, and Professor Goodwitch, who after a short explanation of their ride, and Ruby's vault, which got a raised eyebrow from Blake, and a low whistle from Yang, found themselves back out in Diagon Alley.

* * *

"First things first then" Professor McGonagall said, leading her group, which wasn't unlike when she guided muggle born students and their parents through the Alley for the first time, "We need to acquire your spell books" she ushered them into a big looking shop labeled _Flourish and Blott's._

Blake had to take a deep breath to keep her eyes from bugging out of her head at the sheer amount of books that surrounded her, she just wanted to grab one of everything and read them all! Of course, she couldn't do that, so she had to force the urge down as to keep herself calm. Especially with some of the weirder books she was seeing, like the one that was currently biting at the bars of the cage it was in.

That was odd.

Blake kept to the other side of the shop after that.

* * *

Weiss however, was scanning a far more cut and dry part of the store, the culture and traditions section.

Grand.

She thought the tournament was barbaric before, and had incorrectly assumed it was something put on by the popular demand of commoners, and was absolutely appalled when she found out that the higher rungs of society actively attended and helped honor the champion! They were the upper crust of society! They were supposed to be sophisticated and cultured, not participating and perpetuating this type of atrocity! She slammed the book shut with distaste and immediately started reading a tradition book, and was hoping that maybe if she ignored the clear prejudice against these 'muggle borns' that maybe she'd be a bit more enthralled in her studies.

* * *

While half of team RWBY was enthralled in the books that the shop had to offer, Yang and Ruby were not.

While Yang was trudging behind Blake hoping for something exciting to happen, Ruby was dutifully following Professor McGonagall grabbing the books she was told to grab including, _The Standard Book of Spells Grades 1-4, by Miranda Goshawk, The Essential Defense Against the Dark Arts by Arsenius Jigger, The Dark Forces, a Guide to Self Protection by Professor Quentin Trimble,_ and a few books on Jinxes, Curses, and Charms that were meant to "supplement her with a repertoire of useful spells to help her in the tournament."

It wasn't that Ruby hated studying or learning, she didn't, she just hated learning out of nothing more than a book, she was actually in the top ten percent of her class, just below Blake and Ren in academics, and just above Yang, due in no small part to Weiss' extreme studying habits, but that didn't mean she hated to study, she just found staring at a book for hours on end when she could be doing work on her weapon, training, or doing something far more fun than reading a dry old textbook to be absolutely boring.

In all honesty, Ruby just wanted to know why they were so against her using Crescent Rose. Although she did glimpse something called a summoning charm, that would definitely do her some good on using Crescent Rose in the battle provided they force her to go into the arena with only a wand instead of her baby.

She just really hoped that she didn't need to use a wand that much, it was far more flimsy than Crescent Rose.

* * *

After what felt like an eternity to Yang, they got the books Professor Dumbledore had instructed them to get for Ruby, and found themselves in front of a small, shabby looking shop labelled, _Ollivander's, Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C,_ Ruby didn't know what B.C meant, but figured that it must be extremely old if the look of the shop was anything to go by.

They entered the shop, and caused a little bell hung above the door to ring throughout it. The very air was causing the hairs on the end of her neck to stand on end as she walked up to a small desk that had the cash register and a tiny bell on top of it along with what looked like a ledger covered in neatly curved handwriting.

Ruby rung the bell once, and was about to do it again when from around the edge of a rather large shelf a man popped his head out, white curly hair sat neatly upon his head and grey eyes shimmering with intelligence and wisdom, along with a rather large smile on his face as he saw the one standing at the desk.

"Ruby Potter" he said quietly, yet his voice carried throughout the shop, he seemed to choose not to notice the frown on Ruby's face at being addressed by a name she'd gotten rid of ten years prior to even knowing of her parent's existence, and this was further evidenced when he saw the faded scar on her forehead and seemingly smiled wider upon seeing it. "I was wondering if I would ever see you enter my store, it would seem you're about three years late my girl" he chuckled. "Why I remember when your mother and father came in here to buy their first wands. Your mother's wand was ten and three quarters inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work. Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand, eleven inches, pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well I say your father favored it, it's really the wand that chooses the wizard of course." He smiled nostalgically as if reliving the moment he'd just described before his eyes snapped back into focus and he turned his smile back to Ruby as he asked her, "Now, which hand is your wand hand?"

Ruby looked at the man quizzically and assumed that by wand hand, he meant the hand she wrote with so she rather timidly replied, "Uhhh, my left hand?"

Ollivander simply nodded and tapped the tape measure with his wand causing it to go crazy in measuring her wrist, forearm, her biceps, triceps, midsection, legs, height, head circumference, nose length, the length between her eyes, and on an on as Ollivander was rushing through his shelves, grabbing multiple long thin boxes as the tape measure from hell kept taking every measurement known to man, and possibly some only known to Faunus. The length of her leg, her thigh, her foot, it finally stopped when it shot up Ruby's skirt, causing Yang to grab the thing and began tying knots in it angrily to "protect her sister's innocence".

It just laid squirming on the floor after that.

After what felt like an eternity, Ollivander finally reappeared with his arms full of boxes and frowned at his now knotted tape measure. He shook his head however, and placed his load on the desk before he snapped his fingers to cause the tape to stop squirming and waved his wand to untie it, and then summoned it back to him before he smiled again and pulled the first wand out of a box on the top of the pile and handed it handle first to Ruby. "Nine inches, Beechwood and Dragon Heartstring, nice and flexible" Ruby took it and looked at it oddly, she had felt some sort of odd feeling when she picked it up, and looked at it oddly, trying to grab the feeling, but it kept slipping away and it had started to frustrate her. However, just as she was about to wave it to try to get that odd feeling from the wand to come back, Ollivander plucked it out of her hands and shook his head.

"No, no, that won't work, hmmm, try this one" he pulled out a smaller one, "Seven Inches. Maple and Phoenix feather, quite whippy, give it a wave" he handed it to her.

Ruby felt nothing from the wand this time and had it pulled out of her grasp once again just as she was about to wave it as he went back to muttering how it would never work. He pulled out yet another one after another minuted or so of muttering and handed it to her, "Eight and half inches, ebony and unicorn hair, springy" Ruby took it and once again had it yanked from her grasp after only holding it for a few seconds.

And so on and on it went as she began to be handed wand after wand after wand and have them yanked from her hand just as quickly until Ollivander seemingly had a idea as he ran to the back of the store and came out with a dusty old box. "This one might work" he said cryptically as he opened it, revealing a beautiful wand sitting in the velvet casing of the box. "Eleven inches, holly and phoenix feather, nice and supple" he handed it to her gingerly, and with a look of hope waved for Ruby to wave it.

Only for it to spit out three or four red and black sparks that fizzled to the ground. He seemingly cursed himself and stuffed the wand back in it's box before sighing and leaning in towards Ruby. "Well my girl, for the first time in a very, very long time, I'll have to make a custom built wand, the one you just used would work for you, yes, but you would have to fight it every step of the way, and you'd never get any useful magic done with it, it would be barely more than a stick in your hands, however, I could make you a wand that would match you perfectly, it will cost just a little more, but it would be very much worth it, I assure you."

Ruby nodded confusedly and followed Mr. Ollivander as he lead her to his workshop along with Yang who _insisted_ she follow them, and walked into a large, yet cramped room that was full of different boxes labelled with different things, different wand cores, wands, woods, and so on and so forth as they weaved through the shelves until they came up on a small workbench with two small display cases set upon it. He picked one up and walked over to Ruby holding it out in front of her. "Now then, please hold your hand out over the box and tell me when you feel a pull to a certain type of wood if you would" he said, pulling the lid off and telling Ruby to do as he had asked.

Ruby closed her eyes and did so, furrowing her brow in concentration as she waited for the correct feeling to flood her, she finally felt it after doing this, and probably looking ridiculous, for around a minute as her hand went over a certain type of wood and before she realized what she was doing, she had already darted her hand in and grabbed it between her fingers. Ollivander nodded and looked at her with an expression of...giddiness? "Well well, Rosewood, typically used in healer's wands, due to it's deposition towards healing , and prefers kinder people, over those who are more...shall we say, unpleasant?" He smiled as he took the sample from Ruby's hand placed it on the workbench. He then grabbed the other box and took off it's lid, telling Ruby to do the same as she'd done before.

This time it didn't take her nearly as long as it took her to get her core picked out, seeing as there was only three in the box. She closed her eyes, and held her hand out over each one, before grabbing the phoenix feather from the box and handing it to Ollivander. He nodded approvingly. "Rosewood and Phoenix feather, along with your measurements, shall we say, twelve inches then? It will be excellent at healing and protection spells, and good for charms and transfiguration, but it will not like casting dark spells at all, and they would fail unless massive amounts of power were forced into it." He smiled wider as he turned towards his workbench. "It's been a long time since I've made a custom wand, It will be ready in half an hour, you may wait up front" he waved them off as he opened a drawer and pulled out a selection of odd looking tools as he began whistling a cheery tune as he worked.

* * *

Team RWBY, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Goodwitch finally walked out of Ollivanders just as the rest of the Alley was closing, following Professor McGonagall to The Leaky Cauldron, where they would be Flooing back to Hogwarts in time for Dinner.

"This is why we waited to get your wand last, Miss Rose, it is typically the longest process in getting supplies, and now you see why I take it?" she asked rhetorically, noticing Ruby's nod as she inspected her new wand curiously. She had thought that she wouldn't enjoy having to use one, though that was before she'd felt the bond between the user and the wand herself. She felt like using her wand was natural, almost like how she'd immediately known Crescent Rose was the perfect weapon for her when she'd first took it onto a training field after spending days sweating over a forge shaping and crafting it to perfection. At first she'd been rather hesitant about learning magic, as she didn't want to abandon the use of her beautiful scythe, however it would be a useful thing to have and she wasn't entirely unsure she couldn't somehow implant it into Crescent Rose.

With that thought she threw her powder into the fireplace and called out her destination correctly this time.

* * *

**A/N: A little late today, but no matter, I got it out, didn't I? I hope you enjoyed the chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, I had to have Ruby end up somewhere wrong, and Knockturn Alley seemed as good a place as any, so I had her pay Borgin and Burke's a visit. Next chapter will most likely involve training Ruby with a wand, maybe a mention of Draco Malfoy, and then Chapter eight or nine will be the first task.**

**Also, the magical properties I chose for Rosewood, (why wouldn't I make her wand ROSEwood? It was too easy in my opinion.) I googled it first, and Rosewood to the Indians (India Indians not American Indians) has healing properties, the smell and such is good for headaches and spiritually it apparently aligns with the heart chakra. The preference towards kinder people I got from a South American legend, where it apparently inspires people to do good deeds, it reminded me of the end of Volume 1 Episode 1's opening speech ending, "but perhaps victory is in the simpler things that you have long forgotten, thing**


	7. Chapter 7

Ruby frowned at her wand, she'd been trying for the past few days to cast a lot of the spells she'd read in the books, and was progressing rather poorly in everything except simple healing spells such as _Episkey_ , she just couldn't get a lot of the ones she'd been told to practice, like transfiguration. Who needed to turn a mouse into a snuffbox anyways? Or a match to a needle? So far it seemed rather useless, or at least it was until later in it's curriculum which she had to master a whole bunch of other useless ones before she could learn them. Like turning dirt into rocks, or grass into vicious attack dogs, she had the imagination and creativity required, and by studying her scroll while doing magic, she'd learned that it did in fact drain her aura rather than drawing from some other power source, so she had the power required to cast it.

Her magic using her aura was okay with her as Ruby didn't use her semblance in combat very much since it was more of a hindrance than a help sometimes, preferring instead to practice her scythe skills until she literally couldn't stand, and she had the move dedicated to muscle memory. It was a more brutal system, but she'd expected nothing less from herself when it came to fighting, her Uncle Qrow had trained her, and she wasn't going to disappoint him no matter how much she had to practice. The way Ruby saw it, her magic was like a new semblance, something she could use in conjunction with her semblance and Crescent Rose. If she could find a way to mount or implant it to Crescent Rose, she wouldn't even need to put away her scythe, or hold her scythe with one hand in order to use it!

That or she could just learn wandless magic, which was like fifteen times harder than wand magic, and she couldn't even do wand magic properly yet.

So that idea went out the window for now.

She sighed and turned back to her book that was leaned against a rock under a tree that was near the Black Lake, it gave her a lot of room to move as she practiced, and the shade was nice to read her book under. She'd have to bring Weiss out here at some point, she'd love it here!

Yang would ruin it though, and Blake would much prefer to sit in front of the fireplace, or sit in the tree. Weiss would appreciate the beauty of the place far more than the other half of team RWBY would. Plus the beauty of this spot would match Weiss'- wait, what? Ruby shook her head, getting the thoughts of Weiss with the sun perfectly reflecting off her hair, smiling as she and Ruby hung out under the tree, talking and studying, or whatever Weiss would do out here out of it. She really needed to sort her feelings for her white haired partner out, she could ask Yang-

Okay, she couldn't even keep a straight face thinking that. Blake though, might be a better choice, if only because she wouldn't tease her, and she wasn't Weiss! Who wouldn't really be a help with this, since she would probably be creeped out or confused and then Weiss would yell at her, and Ruby really didn't want Weiss to yell at her.

Ruby shook her head again to get thoughts of Weiss out of it, she'd learned early on from Uncle Qrow that you can't train at anything while being distracted. She took a deep breath and cleared her head before pouring over the book again, trying to figure out where she was going wrong, it wasn't like she'd be using it in the Tournament, but using it on Remnant would definitely be a surprise to people in the Vytal Festival, so getting a grip on it would be absolutely necessary.

She sighed and began waving her wand in the correct pattern, really disliking the annoying movements she had to do. They were a lot like Crescent Rose's stances, but infinitely more annoying because there were just _so many_.

Ruby rested her head on the tree trunk, she wasn't able to grasp this magic stuff, it was nothing like fighting with her scythe! That had come so naturally when she'd originally started training, but with magic, it was like she was fighting it every step of the way. She was getting extremely fed up with this magic business, but she was _determined_ to get at least some of these jinxes down if it was the last thing she did! She just had to understand it first, which wasn't easy in the slightest, and that really annoyed Ruby to no end.

Her semblance was easy enough to master, her aura seemingly had wanted her to learn it, and so she had, using every last drop of her aura for days and weeks on end to master it's use, being able to go from standing still to her top speed in just under two seconds had been her goal, and she'd managed it after weeks of speed training and running herself to near exhaustion every time she'd gotten home from school.

Her scythe had been a harder experience, having had to master multiple different stances and convert them to muscle memory to ensure she could switch between them almost instantly, allowing her to adapt to using her scythe in close quarters combat, something she had used to surprise her sparring partners at Signal when she'd first mastered the use of her scythe.

After all, someone using a sword never expected to be bested by a scythe in an extreme close range melee.

Magic however, Ruby just couldn't get the hang of it. She did as the book and the Deputy Headmistress had said, she imagined what she wanted it to do, she visualized it in her mind, and she pushed what she assumed was her magic up her arm, into her wand, and let it carry the force out of the end of it. However, all that she'd managed was the simple cut sealing spells like _Episkey_ , and Ruby figured that was mostly because her wand was suited towards healing, which meant she was supposed to have an easier time healing than offensive spells. She would have to ask Professor McGonagall why it was so hard, she was the only Professor here she had spoken to other than Dumbledore, and he just creeped Ruby out, so she only spoke to him when absolutely necessary.

Ruby finally stood back up after lamenting her uselessness with magic outside of healing spells and put her wand away in the holster she'd gotten at Ollivanders for it before she packed up her books and went to put them away in her suite. She'd work on magic later when her mind cleared up and she could focus better. Right now though...

Scythe practice or weapon maintenance sounded like a great idea.

* * *

Dumbledore stared at the special dispensation form he'd managed to have pushed through the Triwizard's committee. He hated having to use his power in such a way, but Ruby Potter had to survive this tournament, and he'd used that card to force them into allowing her to use her Scythe in the battle after he had let it slip that she'd been entered against her will. It had worked, and he was glad of that, but scaring people into passing something he needed passed was something that always left a bad taste in his mouth.

He looked out over the grounds and could just make out Ruby trudging back inside, her new textbooks tucked under her arm. From what he could see, she'd been unsuccessful once again in casting anything other than a simple healing spell. Which was rather disheartening to the Headmaster, but she had that large weapon of hers to fall back on, and he had seen their spar from the other day, and he had to admit that their muggle weapons were very effective in what they did. Even if it was a rather barbaric way doing so.

Still, the longer she was here, the better the chances that she might end up staying here. He hated having to pull her away from what she knew, but it was for the good of the world, and it was Ruby's destiny to face down Lord Voldemort, and no one could run from destiny, no matter how much they wanted to.

Dumbledore had learned that lesson the hard way when he'd been forced to duel Gellert in 1945, no matter how badly he'd wanted someone else to do so. So, while it was with a heavy heart he had to do so, he needed Ruby to stay here, if only so she could face off against Voldemort. Afterwards, he would find a way to send Ruby back to her world, even if they had to bring back the Triwizard Tournament and bring one of the people Ruby had brought with her.

He wasn't unreasonable, if she survived, he would send her home, as Remnant, no matter how much he disliked it...it was Miss Pot- Miss Rose's home. She wouldn't fit in here, she'd grown up in a world where she'd been loved and wanted every day of her life, she'd had a family, and friends, and had a future there, while here on Earth, in the Wizarding World, she had no one. He hadn't seen Remus since he had been forced to resign the year before, Sirius was locked up in Azkaban for his betrayal of the Potters, and her biological aunt, well Dumbledore knew Ruby wouldn't have been treated the best there.

Unfortunately, he had had no choice at the time of his decision, the Death Eaters were still out there, and they would have wanted to take revenge on the child that had vanquished the Dark Lord, regardless of how much she'd actually realized she'd done. He was glad that whoever had sent her away from there had managed to get her to a safe place, well as safe as a world full of mindless monsters bent on the destruction of humanity could be anyways. Still, it was clear she was happy there, so he would be sure Ruby could go home, and nothing would stop him in his pursuit to do so once the Dark Lord was gone for good.

Dumbledore sighed tiredly, feeling all one hundred and fourteen years pile on him simultaneously as he realized he'd almost ripped her from all she knew and loved, purely to face a monster and willingly die to him. However, that feeling abated almost immediately when he realized something.

Her scar had faded to the point of being almost unnoticeable.

Dumbledore inwardly cursed himself for being so dumb, he'd have to run a small test on her, a simple charm, to him at least, to see if the soul piece was truly gone. If it was, well technically her part in the prophecy was over.

Because she'd vanquished the Dark Lord from her, she lived, and therefore, she'd broken the prophecy's terms. Dumbledore cursed himself again for his arrogance, he had almost sent a teenage girl to her doom because of his hubris, a teenage girl with a full life ahead of her, and if the glances he'd seen between Ruby and her friend, Weiss were any indication, love could very well be in her future as well.

He only wished she had a better chance at it than he'd had when he was young.

* * *

Ruby put her books away slightly dejectedly as she inwardly berated herself for failing to get anymore spells down yet. She knew magic took years to learn, but she figured she'd be able to do something useful by now, if only because she was trying so hard to do so.

Ruby quickly pushed those thoughts out of her mind as she pulled out Crescent Rose's maintenance kit, her baby would shine even brighter than usual soon, and it would help her clear her mind of her odd feelings for Weiss! With that thought in her head, Ruby practically skipped out the door as she headed towards an unused classroom she'd been told by Professor Goodwitch that she, her team, and team JNPR could use while they were here, and since she couldn't find Blake (Not that she'd looked anywhere other than the spot in front of the fire and knocked on her door. She wasn't avoiding her, honestly!) to help her with her Weiss problem, she'd just go and practice until her arms were jello and she could go to sleep! With that thought in mind, she rushed out the door, happy to finally get her mind cleared...

And ran directly into Blake.

"Oh, sorry Blake!" Ruby said quickly as she stood up, smiling nervously as she rubbed the back of her head. "Wasn't paying attention to where I was going..oops!"

Blake got back on her feet quickly, wiping the dust off the front of her outfit and picking up the book she dropped after the unexpected impact knocked her off her feet. "It's fine Ruby just watch where you're going, okay?"she said with a slight smile on her face, she'd been opening up a bit more recently around her friends, and as such had begun to see Ruby as a sister, and seeing someone as a sister entails in you knowing when something is up with them, and seeing Ruby rubbing her scar like that, was a big a tell of her nervousness as her eyes constantly darting around the hallway, looking for a way of escape. So Blake did what she thought needed to be done.

She stood in front of Ruby and crossed her arms, raised an eyebrow and looked at her quizzically. "What's bothering you Ruby?" She asked neutrally, noting how Ruby started to sweat a little as she made indistinguishable babbling noises instead of actual words at Blake's perceptiveness. "You can tell me Ruby" Blake encouraged, this time with a bit of warmth, trying to get her to open up, if only to help her out just a little bit. She smiled slightly at Ruby, her neutral look giving way to a more warm gaze.

Ruby closed her eyes and sighed, she should have known better than to try to hide something from Blake of all people! She could see just about anything! "It's silly, I mean, not in a funny way, or in a "Tell Yang way" but in a, "I'm so confused and don't know what to do, and I'm sure once I have help and understand what's going on, I'll look really dumb" way" she said quickly and in one breath, but she knew Blake would understand her.

Or maybe she wouldn't, and in Blake's moment of confusion she could make her escape!

But it seemed that Ruby's luck wouldn't hold out because Blake had understood her and she nodded slowly. "Very well then, come on Ruby, let's go talk in my room, okay?" she said with a small smile. Ruby nodded, defeated, and followed Blake back into their suite and into Blake's room.

Blake sat down on her bed and patted the spot next to her for Ruby to sit down on, and once she did she prompted her to start talking. "So, what's bothering you Ruby?" She started with an innocent enough question, Blake had seen the glances Weiss and Ruby were giving each other, and she knew what was most likely bothering her about it, but at the same time, she didn't want to jump to any conclusions, not while talking to Ruby of course.

And, the innocent question seemed to prod her on, as Ruby started to babble on about how she felt about Weiss, noting that she'd been having weird butterfly feelings in her stomach whenever she thought of her white haired partner, and how she would look at her more often, and how she wanted to spend more time with her, even to the point of wanting to endure her torturous studying habits to the point of physical exhaustion just to spend more time with her partner.

"So, you have romantic feelings for Weiss?" Blake asked bluntly, deciding it would be better to do this quickly, rather than tactfully. Ruby's eyes bugged out of her head, and she began waving her hands in front of her face.

"What?" Ruby said confusedly. "No, no, I'm not! I..don't think Weiss even likes girls anyways, so even if I did, I'd be out of luck" Ruby said both denying her feelings and simultaneously berating herself for them. "Besides, she's my partner, I can't have feelings for her like that! Dad did for Mom, and she...didn't come back, I don't want that to happen to me or Weiss" she said sadly, clutching her cloak as she did so.

Blake smiled slightly on the inside at what Ruby was entrusting her with, but offered her a sympathetic glance and hand on the shoulder on the outside, waiting for her leader to pull herself out of her melancholy. Which did happen rather quickly after a few moments. "Sorry about that" she said, wiping her eyes with her sleeve and sniffing a little before she rubbed her hands together nervously. "So, I have romantic feelings for Weiss then, huh?" she said to no one in particular, preferring to just test the words out on her tongue. "Great, another thing to distract me from focusing fully on the First Task tomorrow" she said out loud as she rubbed where her wand holster was. Ruby quickly shook herself free of her reverie however and smiled at Blake, her eyes conveying the innocent happiness that their leader was so well known for exuding almost constantly. "Thanks for helping me sort my feelings out Blake! You're the best!" She said happily as she hugged Blake around the neck and jumped off her bed before dashing out of the room.

"Anytime" Blake said to the air where she swore she could almost make out an outline of Ruby in the rose petals she left behind.

* * *

**A/N So, another Dumbledore PoV to clear up my view on him, Ruby's inefficiency with magic, and her sorting out her feelings for Weiss, fun times! Now, I need to address a couple of things just really fast.**

**Ruby is not going to go pure magic, at all. It will pretty much always be her backup in a worst case scenario, like if she loses Crescent Rose like she did in Volume 2. She'll never switch using her wand over her weapon. That would be stupid.**

**I gave her a different wand because I felt that Rosewood fit her better than the brother wand, as Holly is "said to repel evil" I had her slightly match with it, but other than that, I can't think of anything else that one could draw a parallel between Ruby and Harry with.**

**Also, because it was requested, and I liked the idea, have a small omake I made of the wand shop scene.**

Ollivander held out this wand with near reverence, though if you looked close enough you could see his apprehension as well. "Eleven inches, Holly and Phoenix feather, nice and supple" he said as Ruby picked it up. Almost immediately she felt power rush through her hand like no other she'd ever felt before. She gave the wand a wave, and red and black sparks came pouring out of the end of the wand almost like a fountain would water. She smiled as she held it and looked at Ollivander with a smile.

"I think this is it sir" she said slowly, but happily. "I think this one chose me" she smiled from ear to ear as she looked at the piece of wood that now belonged to her as she paid the man.

Ollivander however, didn't seem to be paying to much attention to his latest customer, instead muttering as he went about his duties. "Curious...very curious..." Ruby heard him murmur as he walked by, she decided to cut to the chase and figure out what he was talking about.

"Excuse me Mr. Ollivander, but what's curious?" she asked well...curiously. Ollivander turned to regard her with an odd glint in his eyes.

"That scar" he said as way of explanation, "I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that made it" he paused for a moment, casting a silencing charm on the door. "Yew and phoenix feather, thirteen inches, powerful, very powerful why if I'd known what that wand was sent out into the world to do...I never would have sold it.." he paused as if deciding whether or not team RWBY and the two Professors should hear this. "The phoenix that gave the wand that tail feather gave one other, just one other, and it's brother gave you that scar." Ollivander brightened up now, as if not realizing how oppressive an atmosphere he'd just inspired in his shop.

"I think that means we can expect great things from your Miss Potter" he said with a smile on his face before it was abruptly replaced with a frown. "For He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did terrible things...yes, but great" he said in an almost whisper, just now noticing the reddening eyes of the girl's sister.

It was at this point that Ollivander knew, he'd done screwed up.


	8. Chapter 8

Ruby woke up the morning of the First Task with a knot in her stomach. She had known for the last three weeks that she'd be fighting in the tournament, and she'd known for that long that she'd be facing deadly opposition, that was a given.

It just hadn't hit her that she'd be doing it in front of a _crowd_. If she'd been going against the danger of the first task without thousands of people looking at her, she'd be fine, but now, well she just had to hope her opponent was a big enough challenge.

"You ready for the task today, Ruby?" Yang asked cheerily as she popped her head in to her room to Ruby fastening her cape to her combat outfit. She looked at her sister with wide eyes, and immediately tried her best to hide her apprehension of the coming fight from her sister if only for her own sake.

So, Ruby smiled, nodded and gave her sister a thumbs up. Though she figured her sister would see through it anyways.

And she did.

Yang raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips. "Are you really Ruby?" She asked, clearly seeing through her lie. Ruby sighed in defeat.

"Fine, I'm nervous, okay?" She said tiredly, "These people here, they think I defeated some guy when I was one year old, which I still don't know the whole story too" she said trailing off as that thought entered her mind. "It's just, I don't like the idea of going into life threatening danger while being gawked at" she said moodily as she crossed her arms and glared at a spot on the wall.

Yang sighed, she knew her sister would be feeling this way, she'd never been good in front of crowds except during Combat class where she was focused on defeating her opponents and you couldn't really afford to pay attention to the crowds. "It's alright Ruby!" Yang began as she started thinking of a way to cheer her sister up. "It'll be just like combat class or Initiation! You don't have to pay attention to the people watching, it'll be like they aren't even there, I promise!" She said enthusiastically, noticing Ruby's expression lighting up at her assurance.

"You're right Yang, besides I'm the leader of team RWBY! I can't be nervous about stuff like this, besides, what do they have that could rival the Grimm?" Ruby said, now reassured that her sister was correct.

* * *

Ruby sat down at her now normal spot at the Gryffindor table, she'd been able to tune out the stares and whispers before, but now they were worse than they'd been since her first day stuck here.

Murmurs and whispers followed her as she had walked into the Great Hall, and they didn't stop until she was surrounded by team RWBY and JNPR. Her nerves were back with a vengeance as she tried so valiantly to eat something, but her stomach was churning and felt like it had rocks in it, making it an uphill battle as she listened to the good lucks and well wishes from her and Jaune's team. Ruby just wished that she could hurry up and get it over with.

It was at this point that she thought she was finally successful in completely tuning out the Great Hall's chatter when she realized it hadn't been tuned out, it had completely stopped. She looked up to see what was going on, and had a newspaper thrust in front of her by Hermione.

**RUBY POTTER: INTER-DIMENSIONAL TRAVELER, OR DELUSIONAL NUTCASE?**

**By: Rita Skeeter**

It was her interview from the Wand Weighing ceremony where she'd been forced to give an interview to an oddly dressed, and completely creepy, journalist named Rita Skeeter. It read more like Ruby had been shoved into a straight jacket rather than shoved into a broom cupboard where she'd been forced to answer questions. The woman couldn't even get her facts right! She made it sound like Remnant was on the verge of destruction every day, and that her and her team were a bunch of child soldiers! It then went on to try to say that Ruby had even forgotten her real last name and went by Ruby Lily!

Ruby scowled at the paper and ripped it in two in anger before shooting an apologetic glance at Hermione and then resumed glaring at the ripped paper on her plate.

"How can they allow her to print this...this...slander? Libel? These complete and utter lies?" Weiss said in outrage as she pulled a paper away from a nearby Gryffindor student who'd begun looking at Ruby warily, like she was going to snap and kill all of them at any second. "Does this place not have any sort of libel laws!?" She said, before she lost coherence in her rage at the journalist, a term Weiss used extremely loosely in this situation.

"It is rather nasty" Blake said in her normal tone, though her team could detect a bit of tightness to it, indicating her true feelings towards the paper.

Yang however, she was close to bursting with anger. "THIS WOMAN THINKS SHE CAN SLANDER MY SISTER AND CALL HER A NUTCASE!?" Yang shouted as she glared holes into the paper. "WHAT IS THIS WOMAN'S PROBLEM WITH HER!?" Yang's voice quivered as her hair burst into flame and her eyes turned full red with her anger. "JUST WAIT TILL I GET MY HANDS ON THIS RITA WOMAN!" However, she was stopped from storming out by Ruby's hand on her shoulder.

"Yang, it's okay, really. It's fine. I don't care what they think, and I don't want you getting in trouble with the Wizarding Police or whatever they're called, for hurting this woman, we can just give a copy to Professor Goodwitch and we'll see what she can do about it, okay?" Ruby said, though she phrased her question more like an order, and there was a certain steel behind her normally lively eyes.

Yang complied with a defeated sigh as her eyes returned to their normal color and her hair simmered down, which triggered an almost Great Hall wide sigh of relief. "Fine Ruby, let's go take this" she waved the paper in her hand, "to Professor Goodwitch, you're probably right" she followed Ruby as she she began heading up towards the Head Table.

Professor Goodwitch had of course, seen this happening, she was extremely observant, and that display had been about as subtle as a Goliath in a Dust shop, so she looked up from her scroll and looked at the two girls as they approached her at her spot at the end of the Head Table. "Miss Rose, Miss Xiao Long, how may I help you?" She asked impassively, already having a good idea of what it was, after all she'd already read today's paper, or rag of lies as she preferred to call it.

She wasn't wrong either, after she finished her question, Miss Xiao Long more or less slammed that day's paper onto the table with a resounding _crack_ in front of her Professor. "We were hoping you could do something about" she glared at the paper so furiously as if willing it to burst into flame, "this article that slandered Ruby." She said in a tone that clearly conveyed how outraged she was at the person who wrote it, and how much she wanted to hurt them.

Professor Goodwitch, unlike the rest of the teachers who had involuntarily recoiled when Yang had slammed the paper down on the table, calmly picked up the paper and skimmed over the article, refreshing the details of it in her mind. "I'll see what I can do Miss Xiao Long, Miss Rose, why don't you go rejoin your teams at the Gryffindor table so that Miss Rose can have a proper meal before the First Task?" She said, clearly showing that the interaction was over between them.

"If Professor Goodwitch can't get anything done, Yang, no one can" Ruby said in a calm, happy tone, as they walked through the silent Great Hall as they headed back for the end of the Gryffindor table.

Yang shrugged indifferently at this and crossed her arms in silent anger. "If Professor Goodwitch can't get anything done, I'll gladly beat this Rita Skeeter woman into pieces" she said as they sat back down at the table, Yang next to Blake and Ruby next to Weiss. "I just can't believe she'd lie like that! Isn't she supposed to be a reporter?" Yang began picking at her eggs, muttering about the injustice of the situation.

"She's more of a hussy than a reporter if you ask me" Hermione's voice broke through the silent musings of team RWBY, and team JNPR's frantic attempts to quell Nora's impulse to crush Rita's legs with Magnhild. The two teams turned to look at her with curious looks on their faces. Hermione hardly ever talked around them, preferring instead to talk to Blake quietly in the library, where they would discuss the literature of their worlds. "She interviews people, then she slanders them or somehow gets her hands on embarrassing photos or some sort of blackmail on the person that she wrote about and publishes it, destroying that person's reputation. The only person who ever completely survived Rita's slander with their reputation intact was Dumbledore when she outed him as a homosexual" she said in a way that sounded like she'd regurgitated it from a textbook. "I'm sorry this happened to you Ruby, it's completely unfair and I doubt there's really anything that can and will be done against her, especially since a lot of the people in the Wizarding World take her word as truth, no matter how far fetched and false it is." She then turned back towards her food, a small frown on her face as she thought.

"Well, there's no time to dwell on this at the moment." Ruby said, glancing at her scroll. "I've got to get to the competitor's tent, see you all after the task!" She yelled over her shoulder as she ran out of the hall.

"Remember Ruby!" Yang called out after her, "It can't be as bad as the Grimm!" Ruby nodded back with a smile on her face at her sister's reassurance.

* * *

Her sister most definitely was _NOT_ correct.

She'd walked into the competitor's tent, Crescent Rose held in her arms in it's travel form, and had been told to pull a a figurine from the bag that had been thrust in front of her a few moments after she entered the tent. She figured it would be something simple, most of the worst things she'd seen in the history of the Triwizard Tournament were only XXXX Class creatures, which were about as threatening as an Ursa Major, something which Ruby could take down quite handily by herself, given the room to maneuver. So she reached into the bag, hoping for something no worse than a Cerberus or an Acromantula...

And pulled out a small dragon.

It wasn't any old dragon either, it wasn't one of the more docile ones like the Welsh Green, or a less close range oriented one like the Chinese Fireball, no her opponents got those. She got the Hungarian Horntail, one of the most dangerous breeds of dragons on the planet, this was an XXXXX Class creature, otherwise known as a "Wizard killer", all dragons had this rating, but some deserved it far more than the others, and the Horntail was definitely one of the ones that deserved it. She'd read about them as a break from studying other creatures and her normal studies with Weiss, and had found them fascinating, if not more than a little terrifying. But that wasn't enough for the officials apparently, no, they had to make them _Nesting mother dragons,_ and they had to steal a golden egg from their nest full of other, real, dragon eggs.

Ruby took a deep breath and began her stretches and warm ups, rather glad she hadn't ate breakfast at that moment, as she wasn't sure she wouldn't have thrown it up when she'd recognized what it was, and what she would have to do. But as she got into her state of mind for fighting, she noticed that the others were being called to their fight. She was the last in line so she ignored it for now, instead focusing on her task ahead as she twirled Crescent Rose around effortlessly, as if it was as light as a feather, and not an extremely dangerous and lethal High Caliber Sniper Scythe. It wasn't long after she'd started warming up and practicing that she heard the announcer's voice, Ludo Bagman she remembered, called out for her over the noise of the stadium, she took a deep breath and twirled Crescent Rose shut, glad for the special dispensation she'd been given by Professor Dumbledore to use her weapon over her wand.

Ruby took a deep breath and flung open the flap of the Competitor's tent, walking towards the arena in long, confident strides as she reached it's entrance.

* * *

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls! I present to you the representative of Beacon Academy, RUBY POTTER!" Ludo shouted as Ruby entered the arena, she cast aside the flicker of annoyance that she felt at being called Potter, and filed it away as unnecessary at the moment, she had to fight something worse than almost any Grimm she'd ever seen. As exhilarating and exciting as it sounded, she would have to focus and be on top of her game, there would be absolutely no room for error in this fight, one misstep and she would, and could, die horribly, though she doubted it would happen, as the second that it looked like it could, her team would jump into the arena and help her out.

So, reassured she wasn't going to die today, Ruby opened her eyes as she walked out into the fighting area and almost gasped at the dragon she was fighting. She'd known dragons were huge, she'd read about them, and she knew what a Hungarian Horntail looked like, though that was only from pictures and that small figurine she'd pulled out of the bag a short time before she'd come out here, but to see it up close was a whole different story.

It wasn't just big, it was huge.

It had black scales, and was lizard-like in appearance. It's yellow eyes glared at the audience around it, and it's bronze horns and similarly colored spikes that protruded from its tail glinted in the sunlight. Ruby took a moment to take in all of her surroundings as she heard Ludo begin the countdown for her to begin fighting, the terrain was bumpy and rocky, meaning she had plenty of cover from the dragon's extremely hot flames, but she couldn't use her semblance as much as she wanted to. She would have room to maneuver, and there wasn't a roof, which meant she could jump high into the air for shots and slices onto the top of the dragon, where it's scales were slightly thinner than the ones on it's face and sides. She also noticed the dragon was chained so it couldn't fly, which would allow her to use her ability of jumping with Crescent Rose rather effectively as she could jump out of the reach of it's tail, claws, and fangs, leaving her only needing to deal with it's flames, which would be hard to dodge in mid-air.

Overall, she had the advantage, and was extremely glad she had Crescent Rose with her instead of her wand, she wouldn't have been half as effective without it.

"Begin!" Ludo's voice rang through Ruby's ears as she unfurled Crescent Rose and jumped into the arena, it's wicked edge glowing a slight red as she channeled her aura through it, and used her semblance to immediately put a scratch along the thick armored scales on the side of the dragon and dashed to the other side of the arena just as the dragon unleashed it's first volley of fire from it's mouth and began scanning the battlefield for it's opponent.

Ruby didn't stay hidden for long though, having dashed around behind it as it began throwing it's head around, looking for it's prey as it did so. However it didn't expect a sudden scraping sound as Ruby dragged Crescent Rose across it's back multiple times and fired her sniper rifle into the deepest gouge she'd manged to make, causing the dragon to roar with displeasure as the round buried itself in the Dragons hide, not quite penetrating the skin underneath the scales, but denting the armor even further regardless.

Ruby used her semblance to dash circles around the dragon as it tried to breathe flame at her, she ducked, weaved, and sprinted, leaving behind nothing but rose petals in her wake, which the dragon burnt as it tried to keep up with the girl trying to kill it.

After a few more seconds of this, Ruby had a small epiphany and immediately gave herself a small mental rebuke that she didn't think of it sooner.

She hit a button on Crescent Rose, causing it's blade to swing back, the butt of the blade almost touching the handle as it switched into it's more aerodynamic form. Ruby nodded to herself as she leaped over another column of flame and activated her semblance, rushing around to the side of the dragon as it tried to turn quick enough to keep up with it's opponent.

Ruby however, was a lot faster than a dragon.

With a thought, Ruby came down from her semblance enhanced speed and skidded on the dirt, swinging Crescent Rose in an arc over her head and embedding it into a gap between it's scales where it had been hurt from a previous attack. She fired the sniper rifle and used it's momentum to carry her under the dragon as she grabbed her golden egg and threw it into a safe corner of the arena before she brought her weapon down completely under the dragon and swung upwards with a recoil enhanced swing into the dragon's lesser armored belly, causing the scythe to bury it's blade halfway into the dragon's stomach before she fired the rifle into the wound, sending fifty caliber rounds through the profusely bleeding gash.

Satisfied the dragon was weakened enough to finish off, Ruby swung her scythe back up into the gash and reloaded her rifle before firing multiple rounds while pulling it forward with her semblance, dragging the scythe up the screeching dragon's underbelly and into it's neck before finally coming to a stop with the scythe pulled out from it's lower jaw before she fired the last round in her rifle to plunge it into the beast's brain, killing it once and for all.

Ruby yanked her scythe out of the dragon's head and twirled it, cleaning it of the red blood that soaked it's blade, before she flourished it a final time and placed it on her back. She checked her scroll to see what the damage was and balked at the fact she'd managed to use over three quarters of her aura in a single fight. Granted, it was against the most dangerous thing she'd ever fought by herself, but using that much aura was incredibly sloppy of her, Uncle Qrow would have been disappointed in her for it.

It was at this point Ruby noticed the fact the stadium was completely quiet, and had been that way since she'd killed the dragon.

Then the stadium exploded in noise.

Ruby covered her ears to attempt to drown out the sound of the cheering she was receiving as she walked out of the arena and was led to the medical tent where she was greeted by Madam Pomfrey waving her wand around her head before handing her a goblet full of water and instructing her to sit and wait for a more in depth examination as she went back to tending Cedric Diggory's burnt face.

"Geez" Ruby spoke for the first time since she'd left the Great Hall that morning. "You'd think that they'd never seen someone slay a dragon before" she said as casually as talking about the weather. The three other champions balked at her, and she looked at them quizzically, "You guys did slay the dragons...right?" She asked lamely, noticing the astonished looks on their faces.

"Non" Fleur said as she raised an eyebrow at the girl, "I did not slay my dragon, I put eet to sleep and took my egg" she scowled, "however ze beast did burn my skirt." She pulled at the scorched fabric in emphasis.

Viktor Krum nodded in agreement, "I did not kill it either, I blinded it and took my egg, but it smashed some of it's own."

"I made it chase a transfigured dog" Cedric piped up from his bed. "It turned it's attention back to me just as I got my egg though" he frowned as Madam Pomfrey stuck a burn balm against the affected part of his face.

"Oh..." Ruby said trailing off as she realized why they were so loud, "I didn't know" she shrugged as she sat back and began twiddling her thumbs and looking around the medical tent waiting for them to be called out for scores.

It didn't take to long to wait, and after a quick check up by an astonished Madam Pomfrey who couldn't find anything wrong with her, she followed the other champions back out into the arena as they waited for their scores.

"The Judges have deliberated, and have come to a conclusion on their scores!" Ludo Bagman's voice boomed throughout the stadium. "The Champion for Hogwarts, Cedric Diggory's score is" he turned towards the judges who began shooting numbers into the air with their wands.

Dumbledore shot up an eight, Madam Maxime fired a seven, Karkaroff fired a five, which was met with jeering from most of the crowd, Barty Crouch Sr. fired a seven and Professor Goodwitch? Since when was she a judge? Projected a seven from her scroll.

Ludo looked at the numbers before enthusiastically calling out, "Thirty four points for Cedric Diggory!" He called out to the crowd, the Hogwarts students cheering for their champion. "Next up! Fleur Delacour! Who earned a total of" he waited for the judges to shoot their numbers into the air before exclaiming "Thirty nine points for the Beauxbaton's champion!"

Ludo waited for the cheering to subside before he called out Viktor Krum, "The Durmstrang's champion, Viktor Krum is now in the lead with a whopping forty one points!" He shouted out giddily before calling out the final name, not noticing the seven other Beacon students sitting on the edge of their seats in anticipation. "And now, the Beacon Academy champion, Ruby Potter, the Girl who lived's score!" He turned back towards the judges and waited for them to give their scores.

Dumbledore smiled genially as he fired up a nine, Madame Maxime sent up an eight, Karkaroff a seven, Crouch sent up a nine, and Professor Goodwitch sent up a nine.

Ludo smiled wide, and seemed about to pass out from excitement. "Forty two points!" He called out to the crowd, "Ruby Potter is in the lead by one point! Closely trailed by the Durmstrang champion, Viktor Krum!" He waited for the crowd's noise to die down before he called out towards the champions. "Remember champions, the golden egg contains your clue for the next task, which takes place on the 24th of February, get to work on those clues champions! It will be time for the second task before you know it!" With that, Ludo waved his wand at himself and walked down from his platform, going over to the judges.

Ruby sighed in relief as she ran back towards the stand having noticed Yang's hair from the arena's exit and got engulfed in one of the biggest hugs of her life.

At first, she hadn't cared how well she did in this tournament, just wanting to get home to Beacon so she could go back to training to be a huntress.

But now, after that horribly dangerous, and extremely exciting fight...

Ruby was in it to win it.

* * *

**A/N: I hope this lived up to the hype, I skipped the Weighing of the Wands purely because Ruby wasn't using her wand and we both know she wasn't going to use it in a fight any ways. Sorry if the Dragon fight was a bit rushed, but I couldn't really think of a way to make it more exciting as I was going from the book fight, not the movie fight where the dragon breaks free due to Ruby not you know...having a broomstick.**

**See you guys on Sunday as we start working towards the Yule Ball and the second task in the tournament! What will Ruby sorely miss? And will Ruby ask Weiss out to the Yule Ball?**


	9. Chapter 9

In a dark, dank prison cell, a man shivered as his guards passed by, the usual cold aura making him relive his worst memories once again as they did. He contemplated turning into his animagus form, but today was inspection day, the day the Minister himself came to "see how well the Dementors were doing their job", and more than likely make snide remarks at the people behind the bars. Which meant he'd have to deal with the resurfacing memories of seeing his best friend dead and not knowing how his goddaughter was doing. What was her name again?

Sirius thought harder as the name tried to slip from his consciousness, the Dementors sucking away every happy facet of his life, he quickly changed his thoughts to his innocence, which allowed the Dementor to be somewhat satisfied as it floated away to do the same to someone else that was locked in this block. The second it left his vicinity the name came flowing back to him and he sighed in internal relief as he remembered.

Ruby. That was his goddaughter's name, it was a momentary relief, something that made him feel better to find he still remembered it, but made him inwardly groan in misery at not knowing her whereabouts, or how she was, no one had seen her for years, and Sirius had feared the worst. He knew when Dumbledore had said that "she was in a safe place" that he most likely meant Lily's sister and her whale of a husband. Which in his opinion was more dangerous than throwing her into a dragon enclosure.

He sighed in sadness again, cursing himself for thinking about her again, she was gone, either she had been moved to a different country, which he hoped was right, or she was dead, which Sirius really didn't want to think about.

However today, things were going to change, not that Sirius knew that yet of course.

"Here minister, you see the notorious murderer and You Know Who's second in command, Sirius Black." A burly guard said as the Minister looked at Sirius with an air of superiority.

The Minister leaned in, a small smile on his face as he admired Sirius' sunken features and starved looking physique. "Ah yes, Sirius Black, I think I know just the thing to make your stay just a little bit worse." He reached into his robes and threw that day's copy of _The Daily Prophet_ into his cell before he stood back up and walked off to the next cell without so much as a goodbye.

Sirius looked at the front page and thought his mind had finally cracked under the pressure of the Dementor's and near starving diet that he'd been put on since his first day here. However, he felt the same as he normally did, so he grabbed the paper gingerly and began reading it, a smile forming on his face for the first time in thirteen years.

**RUBY POTTER TAKES FIRST PLACE IN THE TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT!**

_Yesterday the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament took place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, however as most of our readers know, this revival of the event has an unexpected fourth Champion, Ruby Potter._

_Missing for thirteen years, the Girl Who Lived has finally returned, with an entry into this honorable event. Sources say that her name came out of the Goblet of Fire, and a few seconds after doing so, the Goblet saw fit to summon her into the Great Hall of Hogwarts._

_And now, after three weeks of re-entering the wizarding world, Ruby Potter has taken first place in the First Task of the Triwizard tournament! Slaying her dragon and retrieving her item without so much as a single drop of her own blood spilt._

_She received a single point more than the Durmstrang Champion, and World Cup competing Seeker, Viktor Krum, making her the first leader in the Triwizard Tournament of 1994._

_This reporter looks forward to seeing how Miss Potter's next two tasks go, and if she will stay after the tournament has reached it's end._

Sirius looked up from the newspaper, tears filling up his eyes in joy. His goddaughter wasn't dead! She was at Hogwarts!

She was at Hogwarts...

Sirius put his head against the bars and peered over to his cousin's old cell, Bellatrix Lestrange, one of the people who'd actually had a trial and been found guilty of being a Death Eater, unlike him...

She'd escaped the year before while the other prisoners were asleep. No one really knew how she did it, and she hadn't been caught yet.

If she heard about Ruby being at Hogwarts...

He had to get out of here.

He had to protect Ruby.

He had to think of a way to get out of here. Hmmm, he could probably fit through these bars as Padfoot. Now he just had to wait until nightfall and he could finally go fulfill the duty he'd promised to his best friend.

* * *

Ruby snapped her golden egg shut as she tried to cover her head with a pillow to drown out the sound of the ear piercing shriek it produced whenever it opened. "They call that a hint?" Ruby moaned despairingly as she hung her head in frustration.

"I'm sure there's some way to crack it" Weiss said sensibly while rubbing her temples to try to drive the sound out of her head. "I'm just...not sure what it could be, which means we'll be needing to visit the library again" she said as she got up and headed towards the door to their suite.

"But Weiss, we've gone to the library everyday this week for like three hours a day!" Ruby exclaimed as she waved her hands around, sure, she enjoyed spending time with Weiss, but going to the library for twenty one hours a week was pushing even her limits.

"What would you suggest we do then?" Weiss asked with a raised eyebrow, ruthlessly squashing the odd thought of finding the look on Ruby's face adorable.

Ruby sat in a comical thinking pose for a a few seconds before she shot up with her index finger in the air. "Aha! I got it Weiss! We'll ask Hermione for help! She's our friend and she loves the library!" Ruby said confidently as she went towards the door to go find their new friend. She was stopped by Weiss by the time she got halfway there, however.

"Ruby, what school does Hermione attend?" Weiss asked, hands on her hips and her head cocked slightly to the side.

"Uhhhhh Hogwarts?" Ruby answered as though it were obvious.

"And what school are we representing?"

"Uhhh Beacon?"

"Yes, and who is the Hogwarts Champion?"

"Cedric Diggory?"

"Yes, so thinking logically, even though Hermione IS our friend, who do you think she would help? A champion for another school, or her own champion?"

"I...see your point Weiss..." Ruby said in a defeated tone. "Lead the way" she waved her arms towards the door and followed the now smirking Weiss to the library.

The two of them got about halfway there when they heard a soft crying noise and immediately stopped and began looking for the sound.

"Weiss, did you hear that?" Ruby asked quietly, a hand on Crescent Rose.

"Of course I did you dunce!" Weiss hissed quietly as she put her hand near Myrtenaster's handle.

"Oh look, the Mudblood is crying!" A voice cracking with laughter said, followed by two, more trollish sounding chuckles. "Did I offend the little Mudblood? Did I?" The voice asked mockingly, followed by the sound of skin being slapped.

Ruby jumped into action after she heard the hit, she wouldn't let someone be physically abused when she could stop it! She hadn't helped Velvet out when Cardin and his team had beat her up, but that was because she had expected Velvet to defend herself, not allow him to do it.

Ruby was immediately glad she had rushed around the corner though, as the person that was being bullied was none other than Hermione.

She now had a red imprint across her cheek, and a blackened eye to go with the tears that were streaking down her face, she looked absolutely ashamed of herself, but at the same time resigned to what was about to happen.

Now Ruby wasn't someone to get angry, but when you hurt her friends or family she tends to get a bit...violent.

So Ruby rushed around the corner and began expanded Crescent Rose into it's sniper form, she swung it into the blonde boy's shocked face and then slammed the rifle into the face of his two trollish looking friends, knocking them both out cold.

"Are you okay Hermione?" Ruby asked, folding her weapon up and putting on her back once again. She held her hand out to help her friend up and pulled her back up onto her feet, her normal innocent smile on her face once again.

Hermione quickly rubbed her eyes, not wanting to be seen crying by her new friends as she let herself be hauled back onto her feet. "Y-Yeah, I'll be f-fine, thanks Ruby" she smiled warmly at her new friend. "I've got to go, I don't want to be late to Arithmancy" she went to turn and make her escape but was quickly grabbed by the scruff of her robes by Ruby. "Please let me go Ruby" she pleaded to the girl, but Ruby's mind was already made up.

"Nope." She said simply, pulling gently on the back of her robes to pull her along.

"Why won't you let me go, Ruby?" Hermione asked remarkably patiently for what was happening to her.

"Because, you're hurt, and you need to go to the infirmary, and tell the Nurse what happened so that it won't happen again" she explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world, which apparently it wasn't as Hermione's eyes went wide with a mixture of fear and disbelief.

"That won't work" she said quietly. Ruby cocked her head to the side in curiosity.

"What do you mean?"

Hermione sighed sadly and explained quietly to the two girls as she followed obediently to the Hospital wing. "I've tried it before, over the last four years, the teachers, they try to do something about it, but Professor Snape blocks it again and again, he thinks I'm lying because Draco is his godson, so he protects him, which is absolute lunacy!" She took a few deep breaths to calm herself. "I really wish you had let them continue now...it's only going to get worse now Ruby..." she said miserably.

Ruby however, stopped and looked Hermione in the eye, "No he's not Hermione, you know why?" She asked rhetorically. Hermione shook her head in the negative. "Because from now until he stops, a member of team RWBY will walk with you from class to class!" She said proudly, hands on her hips in a childishly dramatic pose.

Hermione blushed in embarrassment, "What? No! No! You don't have to do that Ruby! I don't want to take away from your or your teammate's time because of me!" She exclaimed, waving her hands in front of her frantically.

Ruby only beamed back at her, "Please Hermione, it's what friends do, right?" She asked, causing Hermione to smile slightly at being called a friend.

Hermione nodded after a moment's consideration, "Fine, but only until they stop bugging me, alright?" She said seriously, Ruby nodded happily back just as they entered the Hospital wing.

Madame Pomfrey popped her head out of the office and shook her head sadly at Hermione's state. "Oooh, Miss Granger, you look like you were on the wrong end of a giant's fist" she said as she lead her over to a bed and began waving her wand in complicated patterns over Hermione's body. "I take it Miss Pot-" she looked over and saw Ruby's small resigned frown and Weiss' glare, "Rose, had nothing to do with it?" She finished asking as she started muttering healing spells.

Hermione slowly shook her head, "No Madame Pomfrey, Ruby found me like this" she said quietly as the Mediwitch started summoning different potions and balms.

She nodded and began bandaging her newest patient before stealing a quick glance over to Ruby and Weiss who were standing in the corner, Ruby rather impatiently. "Oh by the way you two, I heard that your Professor, Goodwitch I think it was, is looking for you. I'll be keeping Miss Granger here for a couple hours while the potions do their work, so you're free to go and find her, I believe she's in the office of that old classroom she was given to continue teaching you eight in" she said before nodding to the door. "Well, what are you standing around for? Off you trot!" She accentuated her statement with a shooing motion from her free hand. Ruby and Weiss quickly waved goodbye to Hermione before rushing out the door and off towards the classroom they had been given for their classes.

"What do you think Professor Goodwitch wants with us?" Ruby asked curiously as she skipped ahead of Weiss.

Weiss sighed slightly, "If we knew, then we wouldn't be going to see her now, would we?" Weiss replied rhetorically as Ruby nodded slightly and continued the rest of their walk in relative science.

It didn't take them long to reach the classroom, so Ruby knocked on the door and waited for Professor Goodwitch to tell them to enter before she pushed open the door and walked in, eyes full of curiosity as she looked at their professor and asked, "You needed to see me ma'am?"

Professor Goodwitch looked up from her scroll and nodded, before she set it down and looked at Ruby directly. "Yes, Miss Rose, it has to do with the tournament." She said as she pulled out a piece of the parchment that the people here used, "There will be an event in the next month, the Yule Ball. I was told to announce it to you and the other Beacon students, however, there is something that applies only to you Miss Rose" she peered over her glasses at the young girl who just looked utterly confused. "You are required to bring a date and to perform in the opening dance."

Ruby looked at Professor Goodwitch with a shocked expression on her face. "I-I have to dance?" Professor Goodwitch nodded.

"With a date as in another person?"

Another nod.

Ruby sighed, "Do I have too?" She tried to not sound like she was whining, fighting in front of a lot of people was one thing, but dancing? Ruby couldn't really dance very well. She knew the basics, it was one of the things her Uncle Qrow had taught her to help her with her fighting, as it helped improve her balance, but actual dancing, in front of hundreds of people? Ruby felt a little faint at the thought.

Professor Goodwitch sighed, "Miss Rose, it is only one night of dancing, and according to Professor Dumbledore, it is a tradition with every Triwizard Tournament" she reopened her scroll and looked back at the girls one more time, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have many reports to write, and many things to grade, you are dismissed."

And just like that, Ruby walked out of the room with a stricken expression on her face and multiple thoughts running through her mind, though one of them, one of the few that accepted the situation kept wondering, " _I wonder if Weiss would go with me?"_

She was going to have to ask Blake for advice again, if only because Yang would undoubtedly tease her senseless.

Ruby sighed to herself and decided it was the best course of action as she skipped slightly ahead of Weiss back in the direction of their suite.

Unbeknownst to her however, a certain heiress was having similar thoughts, " _I wonder if Ruby would ask me?"_ she thought to herself as she followed behind her leader, hiding all amusement at the girl's energy.

* * *

Sirius waited patiently as the last streaks of light disappeared from the sky, he had heard the Minister leave, and it was further evidenced by the fact that the Dementors were back, and not in the holding area they were usually sent to when someone of importance came to visit or inspect the Prison of Azkaban.

Sirius switched into Padfoot with a thought, listening closely with his enhanced senses for any human guards that would notice his departure, but he heard none, to his great relief. Sirius took a deep breath and released it just before he started pushing his head through the bars, and managed to just slide it through the cell as his emaciated body followed with less difficulty, allowing him to walk around somewhere bigger than a five by seven cell for the first time in thirteen years. If he wasn't so focused on what he was doing, he would have barked in laughter, but he really didn't want to be caught, it would be the Dementor's Kiss for him if they did.

So, Sirius quickly darted through the prison, following the smell of fresh air until he emerged just outside the prison gates before looking out in the direction that the boat that brought visitors and guards to and from the island came in from. He nodded to himself and ran towards the rocky shore, one solid, coherent thought on his mind the entire time as he plunged into the freezing depths.

_"She's at Hogwarts."_

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys! I hope you don't hate me for a shorter than usual chapter, but the Yule Ball arc is a little harder for me to write, hence why I am adding Sirius into the mix here as well. I mean, did you really think that I wouldn't add Sirius into this story somehow? He's my favorite character, and I think he and Ruby would get along rather well. How well? Well, Ruby isn't going to be meeting Sirius in the flesh for a while, so you'll just have to wait, ain't I just a stinker?**

**Until next time!**


	10. Chapter 10

Ruby calmly walked into her room, though on the inside she was a complete bundle of nerves. She'd just had a talk with Blake about how to ask Weiss to the Yule Ball with her, and all she'd gotten was a rather bluntly said, "Just ask her", which while slightly helpful, wasn't what she was hoping for.

It was infinitely better than asking Yang for her advice though.

Ruby shuddered involuntarily at the mere thought of doing such a thing. She'd rather be stuck in one of those dreams where she went to class in her underwear, that would be infinitely less embarrassing. Plus, she could surprise Yang with it when the Yule Ball came around.

If Weiss accepted anyways.

Ruby sighed and her shoulders slightly sagged at that thought, she wanted to think Weiss would accept, but at the same time, the less confident side of her said it wouldn't. Ruby could pull it off, she knew she could.

She just needed a plan.

A cunning plan that would ensure the perfect moment to ask Weiss to the Ball. Hmmm, she would pull this off. She could pull this off!

Ruby quickly changed out of her Beowolf pajamas and into her normal outfit and prepared herself to go down to breakfast. She would think better on a full stomach.

* * *

Or at least, breakfast had sounded like a good idea when she'd originally thought it.

However, it seemed the entire school had suddenly became worried for her, someone named "Sirius Black" had escaped from a wizarding prison called "Azkaban", which apparently was a really, _really_ bad thing. Ruby simply laughed it off. A single man without an aura attacking her? Not that she wanted to sound cocky, it was laughable that they thought she should be worried. She was a huntress (in training), he was a quite possibly insane escaped prisoner, she could take him, no problem!

However, that wasn't the only bit of annoying news that came out of her breakfast. She also learned that after the Yule Ball, the Dementors of Azkaban would be arriving to "protect" the school from Sirius Black.

Ruby didn't know much about Dementors, but then again, no one did. She had read a small excerpt about them in one of the books she'd read while studying for the First Task, and Ruby had learned that they were not creatures to be taken lightly. They were like Grimm when it came to attraction, being drawn towards negative emotions, and souls in general which they would devour if given half a chance. They also sucked away your happiness as they closed in, making it nearly impossible to muster the effort to run as they swooped in to suck out your soul. Ruby shuddered slightly at the thought of it. If criminals here were subjected to that every day, how could they not be insane?

As much as Ruby enjoyed fighting, she decided that she most definitely would not want to face one of Azkaban's guards if they did that to their victims.

However, Ruby didn't have time to contemplate the problem of the Dementors, she had more pressing matters to attend to! Like finding out how to ask Weiss to the Yule Ball and ignore the horribly depressing thought of her not saying yes!

Which totally wouldn't happen...

She hoped.

* * *

Yang walked into her sister's room where she'd been holed up for the majority of the day, she knew something was bothering her, and she wasn't coming to her with it, which meant she was either pulling a Blake and not telling anyone, including her, which would be incredibly out of character for her sister, or, and this one was far more likely, Ruby was getting help from someone else.

Yang suppressed an urge to shudder in fear at that thought, her sister getting help from someone else!? The thought was laughable, but at the same time, it was possible and it frightened Yang that Ruby didn't want her to know what was wrong. She was her big sister, she was always there for Ruby and would never abandon her! So why would she just shut her out like this?

Yang looked around the room and noticed a pile of paper sitting haphazardly on the desk next to the sleeping form of her sister, she smiled slightly, and then picked her up and gently placed her on her bed, not hearing Ruby mumble Weiss' name as she curled into the blankets and snuggled her head into the pillow.

Yang was about to leave the room, thinking Ruby had fallen asleep doing homework, but remembered that there was no way that was all homework, Professor Goodwitch only assigned four pages of writing, and that was easily twenty pages of paper. Yang paused for a moment as she was halfway out the door.

Her sister _was_ hiding something from her, and it was her duty as older sister to look after her...

Yang slowly walked over to the desk and looked at the top page, it was homework, as she suspected, the first four pages were all Professor Goodwitch's homework, the last sixteen or so though..

It very well explained what her sister was hiding.

Yang tried her hardest not to squee as she flipped through the pages, all of them a different plan for asking out her partner to the Yule Ball, granted a lot of them were cheesy and over the top, just like the movies she had plagiarized them from, but at the same time, a few were simple, and a couple were even something she was sure the Ice Queen would find romantic, however, something was bothering her that had immediately killed her enthusiasm for the idea.

Why had Ruby hid this? Was she afraid that Yang wouldn't accept her? No, she knew Yang wouldn't care, was she scared for Weiss perhaps? No, that wouldn't be it either, she had to know that Yang was only distrustful of people she didn't know, not people she knew and talked to everyday, and would see and talk to almost everyday for the next four years.

Then the answer hit Yang like a ton of bricks.

And almost sent her into a laughing fit right next to her younger sister's bed.

Ruby was afraid she would pick on her for it!

Granted, there would probably be a few moments in the future if Ruby and Weiss were to become a thing, that she might make a joke or two, but when the question of how to ask the Ice Queen out was burning into her mind, she was far, far more tactful than that.

She was after all, Ruby's big sister, it was her job to ensure she was happy and stayed that way. So, with that thought in her mind, she leafed through the crude drawings if Ruby asking Weiss out during a multitude of different moments and scenarios, each one more outlandish than the last until she came upon the one she thought would be best and grabbed Ruby's pencil before writing a short apology note and circling the one she thought would be best. Then, with a smile and possible teasing material in her future, Yang Xiao Long walked out of her sister's bedroom with a large smile on her face.

* * *

Ruby awoke about an hour later, confused as to how she ended up in her bed before she remembered what she had been doing and immediately dashed over to the table to ensure that no one had seen her...work.

At first, it seemed all was fine, her plans were still hidden under her homework, however that thought quickly fled her mind when she saw the all too familiar scrawl right next to a piece of paper she'd written on with a huge circle around it.

Her sister had seen it!

Ruby, completely mortified, picked up the note and read it, relieved it was an apology note and that she wouldn't tease her for asking for help with her "Weiss problem" as Yang had so eloquently put it. She felt sort of bad for hiding it now, but Yang had no one to blame but herself, even if it hurt Ruby to hide it from her big sister, she really didn't want Yang to tease her relentlessly, so she'd simply let the risk outweigh the reward, she would have to see if Yang was mad at her, Ruby definitely did not want that to happen.

Ruby looked at the choice Yang had made and sighed quietly as she agreed with Yang's idea.

She'd just have to approach this tactfully.

* * *

Unbeknownst to Ruby however, Weiss was thinking much the same thing. " _I wonder if Ruby will ask me to the Ball?_ " She asked herself quietly, before realizing what she had just thought and crushed it relentlessly. She sighed to herself, pinching the bridge of her nose as she tried to get the thoughts of her team leader out of her head.

" _She's your partner and leader Weiss! Control yourself! It's unethical, it's fraternizing, it's...it's...Ruby!"_ Of course that last thought only made her stomach twist into knots as she shook her head slightly as if trying to force it out of her head. " _Ugh! I need to talk to someone about this! Yang would either laugh or punch me, Ruby wouldn't understand or she would simply turn all awkward, that leaves...Blake."_ Weiss nodded to herself, Blake would work, and it just so happened the cat faunus was in her room reading, which meant Weiss could get this off her mind immediately!

With that thought, Weiss hurried through the door and knocked at the one next to her.

"Come in!" Blake called quietly from insider her room, hiding _Ninjas of Love_ behind a dust cover for a particularly long and dry novel. "Weiss?" Blake asked curiously, closing her book and setting it down, being sure to not move the dust cover around too much. "Did you need something?"

Weiss nodded quietly motioning towards the chair at the desk, and getting a nod from Blake, sat down in it, before coughing slightly into the awkward silence that began to permeate the room. Blake raised an eyebrow in impatience. "You needed something?"

Weiss jumped in her chair and shook her head slightly, mustering the courage to speak. "Well Blake, you see, I have a slight" she paused, "problem." Weiss let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, feeling like a complete dolt for having this much trouble speaking to her _teammate_ of all people! "You see, I have..." she paused again, trying to think of a word that wasn't to strong, but wasn't to light so as to cause Blake to misunderstand the situation, "feelings for Ruby" she said, voice shaking slightly as she finally managed to say it, causing her to berate herself inwardly for acting like a love-struck schoolgirl.

Blake smiled inwardly at this, it would appear her apprehension of the situation on Ruby's part was completely unfounded. Good for Ruby, it also meant she might manage to finish her book since as soon as these almost daily interruptions to her quiet time ceased, she might just manage to finish _reading her book_. "Well, that's a surprise." Blake said flatly, causing Weiss to raise an eyebrow in askance.

"That's all you have to say on the matter?" Weiss asked rhetorically, preparing to get up and leave the room in annoyance when she was stopped by Blake's hand on her shoulder.

"No, it's not, I do have something to say on the matter" Blake smiled lightly, "Ruby feels the same way." Weiss blanched at this nugget of information.

"W-What!?" Weiss asked shrilly, her eyes going as wide as saucers, all thoughts of keeping her "Schnee Mask" up now abandoned as her brain stopped working for a moment, before quickly catching up and saying the first thing that came to mind. "You better not be joking with me Blake!" Weiss demanded of her raven haired teammate. Blake simply leveled Weiss with a blank stare.

"You really think I would joke about this?" She asked in a flat tone. Weiss simply turned her head away from Blake and "Harrumphed" in indignation at being wrong.

"I suppose not" Weiss allowed, "but one can never be too sure, especially considering what we are talking about at the moment" she replied. Blake smirked at defeating the Ice Queen's logic and simply nodded.

"That's why I wouldn't joke about it Weiss, Ruby talked to me about the same thing for you" she said in an oddly warm tone for someone as stoic as Blake. "I guarantee she feels the same way, if the way she stuttered and blushed through our conversation about it was any indication" she smiled again, nodding at Weiss. "I'd say your chances with her are rather good Weiss, good luck." And with that, Weiss found herself still in a slightly shocked state, outside of Blake's room staring at the now closed door.

"Uhh, Weiss? Why do you look like you just got told you're not rich anymore?" Yang asked curiously upon seeing Weiss in her current position. Weiss quickly regained her composure and coughed slightly, fixing Yang with a glare.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Yang Xiao Long" she said angrily, which was only met by a large grin from the brawler.

"Of course ya don't Ice Queen" she said with a jaunty wave, headed for the door, "see ya later!"

"Stop calling me that!" Weiss snapped at the now shut door to their suite, hearing Yang's laughter from the other side, fading as she walked down the corridor.

* * *

Ruby stood in her bedroom, trying to open the door so she could activate plan "Ask Weiss to the Ball", but for some reason her stupid hand just wouldn't listen to her brain telling it to open the door!

Of course it also didn't help that she was shaking like a leaf as she reached for the knob. "You can do this Ruby! You're a Huntress, the youngest student to ever attend Beacon Academy, and you're the leader of the best first year team in the entire Academy! You. Can. Do. This!" She said to herself as her trembling hand grasped the door knob and shakily turned it and pulled the door open. She looked out of the open doorway and noticed Weiss sitting in front of the fireplace looking deep in thought, completely unaware of her team leader's plight behind her.

Ruby awkwardly shuffled up beside the couch and sat next to Weiss, noticing her gaze not breaking from the fireplace. She coughed slightly to get her attention, causing her to shake her head and look at Ruby with a small blush, not that Ruby noticed. "Oh, Hello Ruby" Weiss said, reverting to a formal speak in her moment of embarrassment.

Ruby rubbed the back of her head slightly in nervousness as she tried to force herself to ask Weiss the question she had psyched her self up for. She took a deep breath and put on her usual innocent smile, though it looked a bit more forced than usual. "So Weiss..." she began slowly, her voice shaking as she began what would either be one of the best moments of her life, or the most depressing. Ruby coughed slightly, pulling on her hood as she she felt her face warm up. "Weiss, will you go to the Yule Ball with me?" She spit this out very quickly before giving into the urge to hide and pulling her hood up over her head and looking down.

Weiss looked at Ruby with slight shock, she had thought Blake was picking on her, that she hadn't been serious and just wanted her out of her room, but it would seem she would have to apologize for doubting her. Weiss smiled and put her hand on the top of Ruby's hood, pushing it down and smiling gently at her as she pushed on the bottom of Ruby's chin with a single finger to make her look up.

Ruby watched with wide, fearful, curious, and slightly hopeful, eyes as Weiss stared into hers smiling all the while. She simply raised an eyebrow and gently said, "Of course I will, you dolt." Ruby smiled widely at Weiss' answer and couldn't stop herself from leaping across the sofa and hugging Weiss for all she was worth.

"Weiss you're the best! Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" Ruby said ecstatically, squeezing Weiss tighter into her embrace.

"You dolt! Stop it! Someone might see!" Weiss sputtered out, red as a tomato. This knock back to reality caused Ruby to pull back from the hug and smile nervously at her partner and ball date. Weiss regained her composure and smiled quite mysteriously at Ruby as she rubbed her hands together. "You know what us two going to the ball together means, right Ruby?" Weiss asked casually, Ruby tilted her head sideways and shook her head. Weiss smiled even wider.

"It means we have to go shopping for dresses" she said simply, causing Ruby to groan at the thought.

"We'll also be using your trust fund for the expenses" she tacked on as a tease for the small girl.

Ruby groaned even more.

Maybe she should have asked out Blake instead.

* * *

**AN: Okay *vomits from writing the fluff*, I'm done with this chapter, next chapter will be shopping trip, Yule Ball, and maybe something else. I just needed this fucking chapter done so I** **can move through the next one and get to the fun stuff, like the next couple chapters of the second task's arc. I'll see you guys Sunday!**

**Also, Hi Ace, you know who I mean.**


	11. Chapter 11

Ruby trudged slowly down the streets of London, sullenly kicking the ground as the two of them walked past shop after shop, looking for the perfect dresses for the Yule Ball.

Ruby sighed dramatically, they'd been doing this for _hours_ , and most of the people here were looking at them weirdly, or commenting on their choice of clothing. Weiss had almost had her rapier taken away by the police, so they ended up having to go all the way back to the Leaky Cauldron so they could give it to Tom the Barman for safekeeping until they got back there with the purchases they would need. Ruby hadn't had such a problem, partly due to her hood concealing Crescent Rose, and also because she just looked far to innocent to even possibly have a weapon on her at all, which worked in her favor after all.

What Ruby hated the most wasn't shopping, no, in fact, it didn't bother her all that much at all to go shopping, what bothered her the most was not being allowed to use her semblance. Which meant she had to spend an inordinate amount of time forcing herself to slow down lest she unconsciously unleash it in a fit of excitement, which made the day go by soooo slowly!

Ruby groaned and swung her head back looking up at the sky, wishing for what had to be the fiftieth time that they were in the Wizarding World so she could use her semblance to get this done quicker, but they had both quickly dissuaded themselves of the notion of using dress robes when they'd seen the hideous things.

Well that, and the Wizarding World apparently wasn't very...accepting of same sex relationships for some odd reason, if the sneers they'd gotten when they asked for matching dress robes and Ruby proclaimed proudly that Weiss was her date were any indication. Which, along with embarrassing Weiss, got them kicked out of the dress robe shop, Twilfit and Tattings.

Ruby scowled at the reminder of the pointless hate that had been directed at them for who she was going on a date with! Why couldn't this place be like Remnant in that aspect? They didn't care who you loved, so long as they were consenting! Ruby's scowl was removed from her face however, when Weiss dragged her into another dress shop, pointing at a rather elegant white ball gown in the window display.

"I'd like to try that one on please" she said in a regal tone, causing the sales lady to not think of questioning the woman or her apparel, simply rushing to the back of the store to procure the dress that she had pointed out.

The gown was beautiful, it was a pure white dress that clung to the torso, but fanned out from the waist down, black lace decorating the breast area, and a black ribbon tying around the waist. Ruby thought the gown on the mannequin was beautiful, but when it was put on Weiss? It looked radiant.

"Wow Weiss..." Ruby said in a breathless tone, "you look..amazing..." Weiss blushed slightly, trying not to smile at the praise.

"Of course I do you dolt" she said, though the tone wasn't full of reproach as it normally was when she called her that. Ruby blushed slightly as the seamstress put different pins in different places, marking where she would need to bring the dress in and prepare it for the heiress.

After what felt like forever for Ruby, not that she cared all that much since she was with Weiss, the rich girl was ushered to change back into her normal clothes and Ruby had a large bundle of cloth thrust into her hands.

"Go try this on, and then we'll have her mark where it needs to be brought in, okay Ruby?" Weiss said, still in "Heiress mode" as Ruby called it. She nodded and rushed to the back of the store and changed as quickly as she could without ripping the dress.

Ruby was full of relief as she stepped out of the dressing room, she'd half expected Weiss to pick some sort of frilly dress that matched her's, but she had been happily mistaken.

The dress Weiss had picked was actually rather plain in comparison to Weiss' and that was just how Ruby liked it. It reminded her of the dress she'd worn to Beacon's dance before their first mission. It was a red dress that covered her knees, rather than puff out at the waist and flow down to the floor as Weiss' did. The dress itself wasn't just red though, it had black lace patterns from the waist up, looking like vines before they formed into a black outline of roses as it reached the end of the dress around her breasts. She smiled as she stood up on the stool, seeing Weiss trying not to stare at her she blushed.

"So...Weiss..." Ruby ventured carefully, "How do I look?" She asked, trying not to activate her aura as the seamstress poked her with one of her pins.

Weiss' smile wasn't one of the tight, polite ones that she normally gave people, rather it was wider, more genuine, the one normally reserved for her team and her sister. "Ruby, you look extravagant" she said, her tone slightly breathless before she caught herself. "Which of course you do, because I picked out your dress!" Weiss said triumphantly with a small grin on her face.

Ruby blushed heavily as she looked down at her feet, a smile reaching from ear to ear. "Thanks Weiss!" Ruby said happily as the seamstress finally finished putting pins in the dresses and told them they could come pick them up in a couple of days. She quickly hurried back to the changing room and got back into her standard outfit and skipped out of the shop, grabbing Weiss' hand on the way.

"St-stop you dolt!" Weiss spluttered as Ruby dragged her down the sidewalk, back towards the Leaky Cauldron. "Someone might see!"

Ruby obviously didn't care.

* * *

"You what?" Weiss' tone was heavy with disbelief as Ruby suddenly found the floor extremely interesting to look at.

"I...don't know how to dance..." Ruby said quietly, not being able to look Weiss in the face as she nervously placed her hands in front of her and twisted them nervously. "I'm sorry Weiss! I'll practice, I'll get better, I won't embarrass you, please still go to the ball with me?" Ruby said extremely quickly, tears brimming at the edge of her eyes as Weiss looked at her with a soft smile.

"It's alright Ruby, I'll teach you" Weiss said softly as she took Ruby to her room and switched on some ballroom music on her scroll. Ruby smiled as Weiss took both of her hands and began instructing her on how to dance.

"Now, the first thing you do is simple, grab my waist with your right hand, and my right hand with your left." She began softly, "Good, now follow my lead."

* * *

Ruby smiled widely as she put on her flats, glad to have managed to avoid the horrible lady stilts that Weiss was so intent on wearing all the time. She checked her outfit over again, ensure she was zipped all the way up and her shoes were on the correct foot before stepping out of her room and waiting in the living room for Weiss to finish changing.

She hadn't been waiting long when the door finally swung open, and Ruby had to consciously keep her jaw from hitting the floor. Weiss looked even better in her dress than she had when the two had tried their dresses on when they had picked them out! Ruby stood there for a moment, admiring Weiss' figure before the girl interrupted her with a small smirk.

"Are you just going to gawk all night, or are you going to escort me to the Ball Ruby?" She asked, an uncharacteristic mischievousness to her tone.

Ruby smiled and held her arm out, Weiss threading hers through Ruby's outstretched one. They walked out the suite door together, weaving through the mess of people that were headed the same way as they were. It didn't take them long once they had managed to get through the massive throng of people to arrive at the antechamber where the champions were to wait for the order to go out for the opening dance.

Ruby stood nervously, hopping from foot to foot as Weiss stood in her normal aloof manner, ignoring the stares, sneers, and leers that were pointed in their direction, simply waiting beside her extremely impatient date.

Professor McGonagall came through the door after what felt like forever to Ruby, stopping in front of them and making sure the champions were there before stopping at Ruby and looking at her quizzically. "Miss Rose, where is your partner?" She asked, a ting of irritation in her voice.

Ruby looked at her confusedly and wrapped an arm around Weiss shoulder. "She's right here Professor!" Ruby said happily as she hugged Weiss with one arm, causing Weiss to blush slightly.

Professor McGonagall shook her head slightly in either exasperation or disapproval no one could tell, but didn't say anything else and went on with telling the champions to be ready to go out onto the dance floor and to put on a good show for the other students.

Ruby suddenly felt very nervous, this wouldn't be like the first task where she was too preoccupied fighting a dragon to pay attention to the crowd, she was going to be dancing with Weiss! She felt a weight settle into the pit of her stomach at the thought. She couldn't embarrass Weiss! She took a few deep breaths as the couple in front of her began walking out into the rearranged Great Hall.

"Ruby, are you okay?" Weiss whispered in an undertone to ensure no one over heard their conversation.

"Nervous, that's all" Ruby replied in the same tone as she stepped onto the dance floor, shakily standing in the dance's opening position.

Weiss smiled slightly at Ruby's predicament before looking her straight in the eyes, made possible by the fact she was wearing heels unlike Ruby, and replied, "Just look at me Ruby, no one but me, okay?" She said kindly, Ruby's smile returned and she nodded as the music began.

Weiss was slightly surprised at Ruby's improvement as they glided effortlessly over the dance floor, as if floating just above the ground. "When did you get this good Ruby?" Weiss asked curiously as Ruby twirled her around.

Ruby smiled as she replied, "I had a good teacher, that and Uncle Qrow did make me learn the basics of dancing before letting me hold a scythe, something about balance, he told me." Ruby twirled her around again as they narrowly avoided the more rigid dancing of Hermione and Viktor. "It's not as hard I thought it would be, thanks Weiss!" Ruby said with a wide smile as the music began to dial down.

"Anytime Ruby, I'm glad to have helped." Weiss said with a smile as the music ended with Ruby putting her into a dip as it hit it's last note.

"Want to dance again?" Ruby asked with a large smile, Weiss rolled her eyes but nodded as Ruby pulled her back to the center of the floor as the orchestra was counted off.

* * *

The night was rather eventful, with Ruby and Weiss dancing quite a bit, only really being upstaged by Jaune and Pyrrha's sheer talent as they floated around the floor effortlessly as could be. Ren and Nora also took to the floor, and unsurprisingly starting another synchronized dance routine with the rest of their team as the other students made room for their antics.

"Do they plan these things?" Ruby asked as the members of team JNPR dominated the floor with their routine.

"I'd be surprised if they didn't" Weiss replied as their routine ended.

Perhaps the most exciting, but no at all surprising part of the evening for most of the Beacon students however, was when Pyrrha rolled her eyes at Jaune before kissing him on the lips, leaving him standing there in a daze before running off to catch his partner.

However, this night clearly wasn't meant to be nothing but smiles for Ruby and Weiss, as evidenced by a group of people in green themed dress robes walking up to them with sneers on their faces.

"The Girl Who Lived is a dirty dyke?" A girl with a high shrill voice and a pug like face said, " I would have thought she would at least be respectable!" She looked away, her hair moving stiffly as she did so.

"Her mother was a dirty mud blood Pansy, of course she isn't respectable, and if what she said when she got here is true, she shares a last name with a muggle!" The girl's date, Draco Malfoy said, his customary sneer in place.

"Hmm! Well I think she needs to be brought down a peg or two!" Pansy replied with a sneer, reaching out to grab Ruby's arm, who pulled it away before she could get a hold of it.

"What's your problem?" Weiss asked in a condescending tone. "If Ruby wants to date a female, that's her preference, it doesn't matter what you..." she paused here, looking for the correct word, "troglodytes think!" She finished with putting her nose in the air and turning her head to the side in disdain.

Pansy laughed elegantly at the girl as she continued with an almost perpetual sneer on her face. "At least I'm not the Girl Who Lived's little lesbian whore!" She spat out, causing Weiss to turn red with indignation as her hand reflexively twitched where her currently absent rapier was.

"How DARE you!" Weiss sputtered out, moving her fingers into a position to summon a glyph to lock her in place or throw her backwards. "I'm the heiress to the _biggest energy propellant producer in the world!_ I. Am. Not. A. Whore!" She exclaimed loudly, summoning a gravity glyph and using it to throw the girl backwards into Draco who fell over clumsily with the unexpected weight. "And I am not above the use of physical force" she said haughtily as she stuck her nose in the air and grabbed Ruby's hand. "Come on Ruby, let's go see what Yang and Blake are up to." Ruby nodded dumbly and followed behind her as the two of them headed over towards Yang and Blake's table.

Weiss was scary, Ruby decided as they met back up with the rest of her team.

* * *

Yang had of course, seen what had happened between the couple and Pansy and Draco, and asked as such when they sat down at the table. "So, what caused to Ice Queen here to go berserk?" She asked cheekily, causing Weiss to glare silently at the girl.

Ruby laughed nervously before explaining, "Well you see, the people here...they kinda...sorta...don't like non straight people..." she mumbled the last bit, preparing herself for Yang's inevitable anger at someone who dared to dislike her sister.

Yang however, took it in stride, laughing it off before seeing Ruby's astonished face. "Wait...you're serious?" She asked quizzically. Ruby nodded.

Yang broke out in even more laughter.

Blake, not so much.

In fact, she seemed livid.

"What's wrong Blake?" Ruby asked curiously, noticing her suddenly glaring into a glass of water, as if trying to evaporate it with her mind.

"It's just...I thought that maybe, in a completely different dimension, that it was possible there wasn't pointless hate, but it seems like we just find a different reason to hate, Human or Faunus, straight or gay" she waved her hand around the room, "magical or not. It's just so...petty, and I don't understand how they can do this to each other!" Blake said angrily, her hands balling into fists as she shut her eyes in frustration.

Ruby got out of her seat and rushed over to her teammate's side, patting her back sympathetically. "It's okay Blake, these people..." Ruby paused, trying to find a way to calm their teammate down. "These people aren't exactly the most open minded, heck some are even worse than Cardin, but we can change them, just like we'll change the people back at Beacon who don't see Faunus as people, right Yang?" Yang nodded with a small smile on her face. "Right Weiss?" Ruby asked, the heiress responded with an eye roll and a nod. "See Blake? It'll be alright!" Ruby said happily, giving the girl a hug before returning to her seat.

Blake lost the tension in her shoulders as Ruby's words sunk in, she was right, it was pointless to be angry, they could change it, and with team RWBY with her every step of the way, Blake was positive they could change it. She smiled slightly as she nodded to her leader. "You're right Ruby, there's no sense in being so wound up." She was abruptly stood up and pulled by the hand towards the dance floor by Yang. "What are you doing?" She asked, caught off guard by the sudden contact.

Yang smiled brightly, "We're going to go and disturb more of these people who think two girls dancing together is wrong, what do you say?" She asked in a tone far more chipper than it had any right to be.

Blake however, simply smiled back, she saw Yang and Ruby as surrogate siblings of sorts, but the students here didn't know that, did they? "I'd like that Yang, let's." She said with a minuscule smirk, causing Yang to smile even wider as she swung Blake out onto the dance floor before catching up to her and grabbing her into an elegant dance right near the people who had accosted Weiss and Ruby. They scowled at Yang and Blake as they came past.

Yang simply winked at them and put Blake into a perfect twirl.

 _"Messing with these guys is almost too easy."_ Yang thought as she and Blake took turns leading.

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys! Quick- Uhhh, author here, I hope you liked the Yule Ball arc! We can now begin the more fun stuff, like the lead up to the Second Task, and we can bring Sirius onto the scene!**

**There's more stuff happening that is going to be quite the surprise when you get there, and I hope you enjoy the way the story pans out from now on, as we enter a bigger and bigger AU of the Harry Potter canon, it's going to be amazing!**

**Also, the story is now being beta'd by the user, Recycler! He's slowly going through the beginning of the story, ironing out a few more...clunkier, points of my story, thanks Recycler!**

**I do have one thing to ask of you guys, I posted a new story on my profile entitled _When Notum meets Dust,_ if anyone who's ever played Anarchy Online knows what I'm talking about, or you just like my writing, please give it a read, not many people have paid it enough attention, and I really like the premise of the story too much for it to just be forgotten in the Annals of .**

**See ya on Wednesday!**


	12. Chapter 12

"We're in Beacon Academy Airspace, sir" a monotone voice called, causing the sole occupant of the Bullhead to stir, rubbing the drowsiness out of his eyes as he stood and stretched his arms and legs experimentally, then surging his aura through the limbs to remove the residual stiffness in them. He strode lazily to the Bullhead's door, waiting impatiently for it to open.

"How long till we land?" The man's slightly slurred voice called out from the passenger compartment, sure that the pilot had heard him over the engine's soft roar.

"About two minutes, sir!" The nameless pilot called out from the cockpit, maybe he should put more effort into learning his pilot's names, then again, this one wasn't female, nor attractive, so he decided he'd let it slide this time.

He'd learn the next female pilot's name for sure.

He stood impatiently by the door, tapping his foot to a tune only he could hear until he felt more than heard the soft _thud_ of the VTOL's landing skids on the pavement of Beacon Academy's landing zone, which was followed not soon after by a soft _hiss_ as the door's hydraulics activated, letting in the harsh sunlight causing the man to cover his eyes as he stepped out of the Bullhead, intent on visiting Professor Ozpin as quickly as possible.

He waved noncommittally back to the Bullhead pilot as he strode purposefully, if a little clumsily, towards the clock tower of the school where Ozpin liked to look over his campus, watching his students go about their days.

It took a few minutes of ducking and weaving around people, and in once case scaring away some grey haired kid before he reached his destination and stepped onto the elevator that would take him where he wanted to go. "Headmaster's office" he said as he walked to the side of the lift and leaned his head and back against it.

"Please swipe your scroll over the interface for verification" the robotic feminine voice rung out, he did so lazily, waving the slightly battered scroll over the holographic panel. "Scroll number 212015 identified, team designation, STRQ, sending request to Headmaster" the voice paused for a moment, waiting for the approval of the man's request to meet with the undoubtedly busy Headmaster of Beacon. He wasn't worried though, Oz always had time for him. "Access granted" the voice said, proving him right as the doors closed and the elevator lurched upwards towards his destination.

After an elevator ride that lasted far shorter than he ever remembered when he'd been called up here as a student, he strode out of the lift and straight towards the wooden desk where his target sat, facing the window that gave him an amazing view of the campus.

"You know, whenever I come here, you're always doing that." The man said, his tone good-natured yet annoyed at the Professor who simply turned around in his chair, a small smile on his face.

"Well, normally when you come here, I'm in the middle of some conundrum or another Qrow." Ozpin said genially as he beckoned for the man, now known as Qrow to sit at the chair adjacent to his desk. He did so begrudgingly, pulling out his flask and taking a swig of it as he did.

"Well, what can I say, I'm normally the one being told to find a way to solve the conundrum" he said lazily, waving his flask around for emphasis. "However, it would seem this particular one is a bit closer, yet a hell of a lot further away from home than I'm used too dealing with, was what you told Taiyang true Ozpin? About Ruby, Yang, her team?" He asked curiously looking at the man with a far more serious expression than most had ever seen him wear.

Ozpin grimly nodded. "I'm afraid so, Ruby and her team were somehow pulled into a parallel dimension of sorts, completely separate from ours and full of unknown danger." His eyebrows furrowed as he thought about what he was going to do. On one hand, Glynda and team JNPR were already there, yet he couldn't help but feel that having Taiyang or Qrow there would calm his concerns about a few things that had been brought to his attention by the weekly reports he'd had Glynda come through to brief him on. This world was quite dangerous, less so than Remnant, it's dangers came more from the people that the two first year teams and Glynda had to deal with that were on either side of them. The ones who would seek to keep Miss Rose from Remnant for their own devices, be they nefarious or good intentioned, and the people who wished to cause her harm.

However, Qrow was an important asset to finding out what their enemies were up to, but his students would almost always come first, so he sighed and looked Qrow in the eye. "I take it Taiyang is unable to make it?" He asked in curiosity.

Qrow nodded, "He can't find a sub, and he's pissed that Signal won't let him off for the time needed, not that I can blame him, they're his daughters after all, so he sent me instead." He gestured to himself. "Good call too, I'm way better than him" he smiled cockily as he went for another sip of his flask before going back to his serious attitude. "So, when do I leave?" He asked, red eyes hardening in resolve.

Ozpin raised an eyebrow and stood up, gesturing towards the door. "We can leave now, if you like, teams RWBY and JNPR should be near the entrance point as we speak, follow me."

Qrow nodded in resolve as he followed the Headmaster into the elevator.

* * *

**Girl Who Lived a Lesbian!?**

**By: Rita Skeeter**

**In a surprise turn of events during the traditional Yule Ball (see who wore what on page 18), it was revealed by a little birdy that Ruby Potter, the Girl Who Lived prefers the fairer sex over men! Whether she was potioned or bewitched by her date and teammate, White Sneeze is unknown at this time, though I wouldn't put that thought of my mind just yet dear readers!**

**As we all know after all, a real witch enjoys a man's touch, and who's a more real witch than the one who rid us of You Know Who forever? Me, Myself and I want to know.**

Ruby slammed down the paper in anger, this day so far was just absolutely terrible! The Dementors had come just this morning, seemingly making the planet itself sad, Weiss was irritable for some unknown reason, meaning she was being distant and extremely, well, Weiss like, and then this happens! Ruby stole a glance at her scroll in desperation.

All this and it wasn't even ten o clock yet!

She groaned as she used the newspaper as a pillow and flipped up her hood to ignore the looks she knew she'd be getting from this new article that would slander not only her, but Weiss, they didn't even spell her name correctly!

"There there" Yang's calming voice said as she petted Ruby's hair through her hood, absentmindedly pulling off an odd looking beetle and throwing it against the wall as she continued stroking her sister's head. "These people don't know you, and besides, give it a few days and they'll completely forget about it. Or if they don't, we turn Nora on them, right Nora?" Yang asked looking up at the bubbly member of team JNPR, who looked slightly less bubbly than normal today.

She nodded, her hands curling up into fists and a manic grin appearing on her face, "We'll break their legs!" She said, though she didn't sound as enthusiastic as she normally would about causing bodily harm to people she disliked.

Yang simply nodded with a small smile on her face and looked back down at Ruby who was still hiding her head and face with her hood. "See sis? You've got us, who cares what these sheep think about you?" She smiled a little wider, though it seemed forced.

Ruby thought this over for a moment and nodded slightly, her regular good mood returning enough that she could at least smile at her sister's comfort. "You're right Yang, why should I care what these guys think? They still see me as a celebrity of some kind..which I really should ask someone to explain to me..." she trailed off before shaking her head and looking up at Yang, hugging her and smiling as brightly as she could. "You're right! It doesn't matter! Thanks sis!" With that, Ruby turned back towards the table and went back to eating the small plate of strawberries she had with her breakfast now that her appetite had returned.

Of course, if Ruby thought that her breakfast was going to be _peaceful_ , she was sorely mistaken. It didn't take long after she began eating the rest of her fruit that she heard the noise of the portal being forced open and a certain black haired man steeping through, which brought the first unforced smiles to Ruby and Yang's faces as they stood up and ran towards him.

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby squealed happily as she lunged forward with her semblance, grabbing her Uncle's arm and smiling happily, wriggling on his arm like an excited puppy as he lifted her up. "Did you miss me? Did you miss me? Did you miss me?" She asked excitedly, noticing her Uncle frowning playfully as he pretended to think before he gave her a cheeky little smile.

"Hmmm, nope!" He said with humor, causing Ruby to pout before hugging him even harder.

"What brings you here Uncle Qrow?" Yang asked curiously, walking up to their Uncle and placing an elbow on his shoulder, using him as a makeshift armrest.

Qrow ruffled the two girl's hair playfully, outwardly appearing calm and with a lowered guard, but inwardly scanning the threat level of the people within the hall. The only one he could credibly feel wary around being the old man sitting in his throne, looking at him curiously.

"Well, when your teammate tells you your nieces are in trouble and that it's impossible for him to get free long enough to save them, well, you tend to be the one sent through the inter-dimensional portal to watch over his nieces and their team." He smiled, turning around to an annoyed looking Professor Goodwitch. "Not that you aren't doing a good job professor" he said with a cocky smile on his face, causing Glynda to frown even deeper.

"Why did Ozpin send you here Qrow?" Glynda asked, clearly annoyed with the man's presence.

Qrow simply smiled widely and replied with a smirk in his voice, "To watch my nieces of course, he told me the basics, what was going on, and he decided having Tai or I here was the best course of action along with you" he said teasingly. "Besides, I'm a teacher too, I can educate these eight just as well as you can" he smiled down at his two nieces. "Just don't expect me to go easy on you two." Ruby and Yang theatrically groaned.

Professor Goodwitch knew this wasn't the correct answer, or rather, not the whole answer, Ozpin must be worried to send another member of his "brotherhood" to watch over teams RWBY and JNPR, and thinking back to some of the things she'd been told from Professor Dumbledore, and a few things she'd overheard as well...she shouldn't have been surprised. So she simply nodded her assent to the answer and tapped a few buttons on her scroll, causing Qrow's to beep a few seconds later. "Very well, there's their current schedule, feel free to take whichever subjects you are qualified to teach" she paused for a moment and frowned before continuing, "besides Combat training." With that, she turned around and headed towards the doors of the Great Hall, her tattered looking cape billowing slightly in her wake.

"So Uncle Qrow you came to see me kick everyone's butt in this tournament, right?" Ruby asked hopefully, smiling up to her Uncle who smiled playfully back and ruffled her hair playfully, causing her to groan theatrically at his antics.

"That's definitely one of the reasons I'm here" he smiled mysteriously as he was approached by the Headmaster. "One of the others is to watch this guy" he said quietly as Dumbledore finally approached them, smiling innocently as he went up to Qrow.

"Ah, a pleasure to welcome you into our school, Mr.?" He paused, waiting for Qrow to answer him.

"Branwen, Qrow Branwen at your service" he smirked and gave the Headmaster a mocking bow. "Fully trained Huntsman, Professor at Signal Academy, and the unfortunate Uncle of these two" he ruffled both his nieces' hair playfully, causing them both to scowl and push his hands off their heads.

Dumbledore smiled pleasantly, feeling a pang of guilt as he remembered he'd almost pulled Ruby away from all this. "My name is Professor Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of this school, Hogwarts, which you now stand in." He put his arms out grandly, as if presenting his school to him. "I assume you're acting in the capacity of guardian for these two while you're here?" He motioned to Ruby and Yang who were shamelessly listening into the conversation. Qrow nodded his assent.

"That's right, on top of watching their backs and making sure that nobody tries to keep them here after the tournament's end, I'll be cheering on Ruby from the stands" he looked down at his niece with a smile, "and I get to see how far she's come since I last saw her just before she left for Beacon." Ruby blushed slightly at the praise from her uncle but smiled happily anyways.

Dumbledore wasn't a dumb man, he knew that "Making sure nobody tries to keep them here after the tournament" was pointed to him, and he figured he was lucky that was all the man had said, he didn't plan on keeping Ruby here any longer than was absolutely necessary, having cast the charm to check her soul on her and being pleasantly surprised to find that the only soul in Ruby's body was her own. Technically Ruby didn't need to stay here any longer, as the prophecy had all but been broken by this, meaning Ruby was free to come and go as she pleased, something Dumbledore was extremely relieved to find out. So, he smiled pleasantly and nodded. "Well, I assure you that you'll find no pressure from me to hold you back, I'll have Professor McGonagall escort you to a guest room so that your stay will be more comfortable" he turned towards his Deputy Headmistress who simply nodded and stood from her chair beside Dumbledore's and made her way down the Great Hall, walking past Qrow and motioning for him to follow.

Qrow narrowed his eyes slightly, as if assessing the threat the woman posed and shrugged, nodding before tilting his head back towards his nieces as he walked away, "I'll see you two later, I want to meet your team in person!" He called out over his shoulder, Ruby and Yang nodded happily and waved at him before walking back over to their seats at the Gryffindor table.

"So, that was a thing" Yang said as she sat down next to Blake who rolled her eyes at her partner's response before going back to her book and her suspiciously large plate of kippers.

Ruby nodded happily as she stuck a piece of strawberry in her mouth, the libelous article sitting next to her plate forgotten as she reveled in the fact her mentor and favorite Uncle (well okay, her _only_ Uncle), was here and would be cheering her on for the next two tasks, something Ruby looked forward to immensely.

She hummed to herself as she got up. the depressing aura that had permeated the school grounds seemingly no longer affecting her as she waved goodbye to her and team began to walk through the school, heading back to her suite to get her books, remembering she hadn't really practiced her magic since just before the first task, something she had meant to do, but had simply forgotten about.

* * *

Ruby stepped into the room and headed for her bedroom where her spell books were, but she noticed something off that was sitting on the table, a package wrapped in brown paper and string, a small note laid on top. She cocked her head to the side in curiosity, walking over to it, not fully believing it was an actual package, having seen a couple of twin redheads pulling pranks with a friend of theirs, and didn't put it past anyone here that didn't like her, like Draco Malfoy or Pansy Parkinson to send her some sort of prank package. She carefully picked up the note, as if expecting it to explode if she moved it too quickly, which with magic, it could for all Ruby knew.

With a small bit of trepidation, Ruby flipped the card over, half expecting something terrible to happen as she did so, but was rewarded with a short note written in elegant looping handwriting.

_Your birth father left this in my possession before he died, I think it's past time it was passed on to you._

_Use it well._

Ruby tilted her head to the side in curiosity, setting the note aside and looking at the lumpy package laid out in front of her. She carefully pulled the string, still not sure what would happen should she open it all the way, but as she carefully pulled the paper off, was rewarded with what looked like a cloak of some kind.

It wasn't pretty like her mother's cloaks were, but it wasn't ugly either, the cloak was made of a fluid-like, silky, silver material, it slipped through her fingers as she held it, and if she wasn't concentrating on it, then she almost swore that it disappeared from sight, as though it didn't want to be seen.

Cautiously, Ruby pulled the cloak out, admiring it while it folded out to it's full length, the cloak was a bit big for her at the moment, but she figured she'd grow into it in a few years, still she was curious as to what it would look like on her. Even if she had never met them, her birth parents were still her family, something Ruby was in desperately short supply of these days.

She stood up from her seat on the couch, and folded the cloak up in her arms as she walked into her room to stand in front of the mirror so she could see what it looked like compared the cloak she normally wore. Carefully, almost reverently, Ruby removed her cloak, and hung it up on the hook next to her door, making sure it wouldn't fall from it's perch before picking up the new cloak from her bed and unfolding it, wrapping it around herself before fastening the clasp on the front. She walked into the view of the mirror and gasped at what she saw.

Or rather _didn't_ see.

She spun around in front of the mirror, partly in shock that her body had disappeared, and part child-like glee with the thoughts of what she could use the cloak for. She pulled up the hood and laughed as her head disappeared as well, nothing reflecting in the mirror but her room as she stood in front of it. She smiled maniacally as she thought of what she could do with it, more than a few of her thoughts straying into how she could scare Weiss with it.

Ruby carefully took the cloak off, hanging it in the place of her mother's cloak as she put her more signature red one on, she looked at the cloak once more, receiving a gift that had belonged to her birth parents had Ruby immensely curious about them, it wasn't that she hadn't cared before, rather, she had just never met or heard anything about them. She had used to have nightmares of who Ruby assumed was her birth mother, Lily Potter screaming and a sickly green light. She'd not had the nightmare for years now, her worst dreams instead being occupied by her weeping father telling them her mother was never coming home, and the unpleasant sensation of her heart feeling like it had exploded as she learned what exactly that had meant.

Ruby shook her head of the melancholy thoughts, deciding she'd ask one of the teachers about her parents, maybe if she hurried she'd catch Professor McGonagall, she'd been teaching here when her birth parents had been students, maybe she could tell her about them, it would be nice to know something , even if she never really knew them as parents, heck maybe she could finally get the full story as to what had happened the night that James and Lily Potter had died.

That thought in mind, Ruby fastened her cloak to her outfit and walked out of the room, all thoughts of practicing magic forgotten in the stead of learning about the people who had given her life.

* * *

Ruby had been disappointed when she found Professor McGonagall, as the woman was very busy and had classes almost all day, and the duties of Deputy Headmistress to attend to, meaning she wouldn't be free to just talk about her birth parents over a cup of tea.

As if the teacher had sensed her sadness, she directed the girl to the hut at the back of the grounds, saying that Hagrid, the Groundskeeper would be more than happy to tell her stories about her father and his friends, but cautioned her to be careful about being near the edge of the grounds due to the Dementors.

With the new advice in mind, Ruby had found her way out of the castle, intent on meeting the Groundskeeper and learning about the kind of people James and Lily Potter were, if anything, it was more than he knew about them before. So here she stood, twenty minutes later, her fist raised to knock on the door when it suddenly opened, revealing a large man with a big bushy black beard, equally long curly black hair, and beetle black eyes that were crinkled in merriment upon seeing who was at his door.

"Well 'ello there!" He said happily, looking down at her. "Ruby Potter!" He called out merrily, Ruby found she didn't care as much when Hagrid called her that, something about him just screamed that he would never do anything mean on purpose, he just radiated a sense of merriment and happiness that made Ruby smile. "I ain't seen ya since you were a baby! I could hold you in the palm of me hand back then, mind you, I could probably still lift ya with one!" He chuckled and waved her inside, "Well come on in, no sense in you standing out there gettin a cold now is there?" He asked with a chuckle, bringing a smile to Ruby's face.

Hagrid walked over to the fire, pulling a large kettle from where it hung over it and began pouring two large cups of tea before placing equally large bags in it and setting one in front of Ruby before plopping down in his incredibly large chair across from her. "So, what brings you 'ere?" He asked merrily, absently batting away his large dog's nose from the bowl holding cubes of sugar.

Ruby smiled at the man and replied quickly, "I heard you knew my birth parents." Hagrid's smile took on a more watery quality at this, his eyes losing a small amount of merriment, as if it was a bittersweet thing to think about. His voice however, held a more nostalgic quality to it.

"Yeah, that I did." Hagrid nodded, taking a breath before continuing, "James an' Lily Potter, two o' the nicest people you could ever meet." He smiled a bit more nostalgically as he seemingly became flooded with emotion and memories as he thought of the two. "Your father, he was a prankster that one, liked to make jokes an' have fun, him and his friends, Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin," his face took on a darker quality before going away, seemingly deciding to not mention something. "they would run around and pull pranks on other students, even the teachers, always a smile on his face that one. Was Head Boy his last year at 'Ogwarts." He nodded to himself, as if agreeing to his own statement before starting about her birth mother.

"Now Lily Potter, she was a fiery one, temper of a nesting dragon, but a heart of gold. She had a real gift for Charms, was apprenticing under Professor Flitwick before she..." he closed his eyes for a moment, suppressing the tears that came up at the memory. "Before she was murdered by You-Know-Who. She was the Brightest Witch of 'er age that one, always questioning how things worked never taking "that's how it is" as an answer. She wasn't friends with your father at firs' though, no, she hated his guts for their first six years 'ere, wasn't 'till he deflated his ego in 'is sixth year 'ere that she noticed him. She was Head Girl along with your father." He shook his head, a tear escaped his eyes as he thought about it, removing the teabag from his cup before putting in a couple of cubes of sugar and mixing the drink as he calmed down slightly.

Ruby smiled brightly at the man, walking around the table and hugging him before looking up at him her innocent eyes, "Thank you for telling me about them sir." She said happily. Hagrid chuckled at the girl's addressing of him.

"Now there Ruby, you call me 'Agrid, none of this sir nonsense, alright?" He smiled, patting the girl on the back and almost sending her sprawling out on the table. She smiled up at him and nodded before sitting back down in her seat, filling her tea with sugar and cream, mixing it together before looking back up at Hagrid with a curious look on her face.

"Hey Hagrid, do you have any stories about my parents?" She asked inquisitively, Hagrid beamed at her.

"You bet I do! Why this one time, your father, he snuck out of the caslte with his friends an'..." Hagrid began talking, Ruby listened attentively sipping on her drink as Hagrid told her of her birth parent's school days.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, it's a bit late, but I've been busy this week, so I literally just finished this chapter at 7:17 PM Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5), but I wasn't going to let this chapter come out a day late, especially with some of the characters I introduced.**

**I'll see you guys on Sunday!**


	13. Chapter 13

Weiss scowled as she burnt yet another pile of letters with her Burn Dust. Ever since that slanderous article had been published that morning, she'd been set upon by owls carrying all different kinds of hate mail, some were red and smoking, yelling at the recipient as soon as they broke the seal, some were booby-trapped and would have caused her intense injury if not for her aura and speed, and the vast majority were just letter after letter of angry words accusing _her,_ Weiss Schnee (or White Sneeze as that foul reporter referred to her), of being a harlot and a potioneering scarlet woman!

Not holding any sway here was a humbling experience, she had discovered rather quickly. On Remnant, if anyone so much as _thought_ of slandering the Heiress to the SDC, they found themselves up to the eyeballs in lawsuits before more than a hundred people had seen the paper they'd printed. Here though, every single person in the Wizarding World was told a blatant, bald faced lie, and they believed it without a second thought! The idiocy of these people was awe inspiring!

Weiss absent midedly burnt the next pile of howlers that was dumped on the table in front of her. She got up with a huff, pointedly ignoring the sneers and scowls she was receiving as she stomped out of the castle and onto the grounds, intent on sitting burning every single piece of mail she was going to undoubtedly continue to receive throughout the day.

Weiss was so consumed in her anger, annoyance, and her irritation, that she didn't notice when it started to get colder around her, she didn't notice when the dew on the grass turned to frost, and she didn't realize something was wrong until she started hearing voices.

_"You're a disgrace to the Schnee name!" Her father screamed at her, she looked down, not wanting her father to see her cry._

_"B-But Father, I-I was o-only-" she tried to protest, only to be interrupted by a punishing smack._

_"NO! You were an embarrassment! A Disappointment! You're lucky I don't disown you right this very second!" Her father raged at her as she stood in his office, tears cascading down her face as he berated her. "If you EVER cause any sort of black mark on our name, EVER again, I will disown you and throw you out on the streets, got it?" Her father sneered at her, his eyes narrowed into slits. Weiss kept her eyes down as she replied._

_"Yes Father." She replied dutifully._

_"Good. Now get out of my sight" he waved his arm towards the door._

_Weiss dashed out without a second thought._

Weiss tried to fight the crushing feeling of sadness, anger, and guilt that built up in her system, pulling Myrtenaster as she tried to fight against the hooded monsters that were sucking the happiness and life out of everything near her. She raised her rapier slowly, lethargically, as if trying to move her hand through molasses until she finally managed to point the end of the sword at her opponent, then, without checking what type of Dust was currently loaded in the chamber, she pulled the trigger.

She felt the recoil just as her consciousness faded.

* * *

Ruby was walking back from Hagrid's hut when she had heard Weiss scream, which was something Ruby hadn't heard before, causing the girl to immediately try to find her. She ran in the direction she had heard the scream come from as she pulled Crescent Rose and activated her semblance, ignoring the sudden dreary aura that seemed to blanket this portion of the campus as she searched for Weiss.

It didn't take long to find her partner, but Ruby saw something that made her stomach churn in fear as she buried Crescent Rose's blade in the dirt looking down her sweetheart's scope.

Weiss was being attacked by Dementors.

Weiss was being attacked by _multiple_ dementors.

Ruby could feel the dark aura of the Dementors on her as she aimed at the one closest to Weiss and pull the trigger, she watched in trepidation as the round tore through the Dementor's cloak and out the top of the monster's head, causing it to stumble forward in the air slightly before flying away with a screech. Ruby nodded in satisfaction, fighting off the voices in her head as she fired again.

Two Dementors running.

" _Where's Mommy, daddy?"_

_"She's...she's not coming home Ruby" Taiyang said, clearly holding back tears as he tried to hold up his strong front for his children._

_"W-What do you mean Daddy?" Ruby asked, tears already brimming on the edge of her eyes as she tried to understand what was happening._

Another shot.

Three.

_"Mommy's not here anymore Ruby...she's gone." Taiyang said, his voice breaking slightly as he told her._

Ruby blinked the tears out of her eyes as she fired again.

Four.

Ruby fought against the encroaching darkness as she laid her sights on the last Dementor and held her breath as she cycled the bolt on her weapon.

_"Y-You mean, I'll never see M-Mommy again?" Ruby asked brokenly, the damn breaking as tears rolled down her cheeks._

Five.

_"I'm so sorry Ruby."_

Then, darkness claimed her.

* * *

Professor Goodwitch was _livid_. Contrary to popular belief, anger wasn't something she felt all that often, regardless of the rumors that went around Beacon, she was quite the composed individual, she got easily irritated by people's idiocy, yes, but she hardly ever got _mad._

There was one surefire way to make Mt. Goodwitch erupt however, an almost guaranteed way to ensure that Goodwitch went from composed to almost blinding, incomprehensible anger in almost no time at all, and the idiots in this world had already managed to hit that button.

They'd hurt her students.

Professor Goodwitch scowled as she walked through the hallways of Hogwarts, riding crop in hand only stopping in front of the gargoyle that guarded the Headmaster's office in order to snarl the password so it would open.

"Someone's not happy." The Gargoyle quipped as it slid to the side, allowing Professor Goodwitch to stomp up the stairs and throw open the doors to the Headmaster's office where Professor Dumbledore, the idiotic Minister who ordered the Dementors here, and an ugly toad-like woman wearing a pink cardigan were currently conversing.

"Ah, Professor Goodwitch, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Dumbledore asked jovially, as if he didn't realize that the Professor was currently on the edge of ripping someone's head off. The ever present twinkle in his eyes however, suggested he knew exactly what he was doing.

Goodwitch ignored him for the moment, instead turning towards the visibly nervous and sweating Minister who was fumbling with his atrocious lime green bowler hat and partially hiding behind the toad faced woman he had brought with him. He reached a shaking hand into his robes and produced a handkerchief that he nervously used to wipe his brow as he wilted under Professor Goodwitch's glare. "Minister, may I ask what. The. Dust. You were _thinking_ in sending soul sucking monsters to guard a school full of children!?" Glynda seethed at the man. "Are you so callous in the well-being of the people you were appointed to lead that you would run the risk of their souls being sucked out of their bodies!?" Glynda paused for a moment to compose herself so she didn't degenerate into incomprehensible rage as she dressed down the Minister.

Unfortunately for Professor Goodwitch, this was all the time the Minister's toady needed to cut in.

"Professor...Goodwitch, was it?" The woman asked with a sickly sweet smile. Her only response was the Professor glaring at her over her glasses as the woman talked. "I'm sure you know _so_ much about being control of hundreds of children, but I am sure you're underestimating Sirius Black, he's a mass murderer that killed Miss Potter's parents along with twelve muggles and Peter Pettigrew with a single spell, he's a very dangerous man you know" she said as she continued to smile at the woman, though it had a slightly, almost unnoticeable predatory look it now.

Professor Goodwitch raised her riding crop at the woman, pointing it between the woman's eyes as she glared dangerously at her. "I fight the literal embodiment of negativity, I train students who will do the same, all of them could easily handle a half insane madman with a stick." Her eyes narrowed to slits, " so please, do _not_ insult their abilities by saying a man who was locked in prison for thirteen years could ever possibly dream of harming any of them."

The woman's smile dipped slightly into a scowl for half a second as she pulled out her wand, pointing it at Goodwitch, who simply looked down at the offending stick with a raised eyebrow. "Oh, but Professor Goodwitch, I do know that he could harm them, because he has something they don't" she smiled sweetly again as she pointed the wand at her chest, "magic." Her smile took on a devious quality now, "I'm sure your _muggle_ ways serve you well on Remnant Professor, but here, we outmatch you with nothing but "simple sticks" as you so eloquently put it." She raised the wand to Goodwitch's neck, "for example, _Expelliarm-_ " her casting was cut off by Goodwitch kicking the wand out of her hands and then grabbing it out of mid-air as though it were as easy as breathing. Professor Goodwitch held the wand in her hand and examined it before looking back at the woman with an almost palpable aura of rage.

"Oh? I'm outmatched?" She held the wand up in one hand, grabbing the other end and bending it slightly as she did so. "Because it looks as though I am _completely_ in control now." Professor Goodwitch bent the wand down to a dangerous angle, taking in the woman's almost panicked look at seeing her wand being so close to snapping and being powerless to do anything about it. She stopped bending it just before it would have snapped and handed it to Professor Dumbledore handle first, who took it with a grandfatherly smile and a nod, setting it down on the desk before him and peering at the toady over his half moon spectacles in a disappointed manner, shaking his head slightly as he did so.

"Now now, Madam Umbridge, attacking a woman simply to prove a point when she's distressed about the well being of her students?" He shook his head at her, "I always knew you belonged in Slytherin, but that was a very low move Madam." He looked over to the Minister who looked as though he'd been placed over a fire with the amount of sweating he was doing at the moment. "Cornelius, would you be so kind as to call off your Undersecretary before she gets herself hurt?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, the Minister jumped slightly at being addressed all of a sudden, but nodded after a second's pause and looked at the offending woman with a look somewhere between official and pure fear before he managed to bluster out his order.

"Dolores, t-that is quite e-enough! Stand down!" He stammered out as Umbridge looked at him with a disbelieving look before smiling sweetly once again.

"Yes Minister." She said tersely, she looked up at Professor Goodwitch with a predatory glint in her eye once again, which was only met with a glare that could kill an Ursa. Umbridge shrunk back a bit upon feeling the intensity of the look and averted her eyes. Goodwitch turned back towards the Minister again and resuming her dressing down.

"So, Minister Fudge, why are two of my students in the infirmary with signs of extreme Dementor exposure?" Goodwitch tapped her foot impatiently as Fudge looked for some kind of escape route.

"W-Well, y-you s-see, we told the Dementors to not enter the school g-grounds b-but we don't h-have t-total c-control of t-them-" he tried to excuse himself, though this just got interrupted by Goodwitch.

"So you bring _monsters_ _that you don't completely control to a school_ and then take no responsibility when a catastrophe almost happens?" Goodwitch questioned insistently, the hand holding her crop twitching towards him slightly in annoyance and anger.

"W-Well y-you s-see, th-they're n-normally o-only a-attracted to negative e-emotion so we figured that they would b-be f-fine, Hogwarts is a wonderful p-place, n-no r-reason for people to feel so negative." Minister Fudge blustered, trying to save himself from what seemed like a sinking ship. He looked to Dumbledore, as if hoping the grandfatherly man would save him, but the old man simply stood from his desk, grabbed a package from the desktop and walked past the two parties out of his office, leaving them to resolve their conflict. This move from Fudge seemed to only anger Goodwitch more.

Fudge gulped.

This would not be fun.

* * *

Ruby stirred slightly, her head feeling as though Nora had smashed it with Magnhild, she shook her head as she opened her eyes, trying to get the blurriness out as she sat up and looked at her surroundings. She was in a room surrounded by beds, all of them empty except for the one directly next to her, where she saw a shock of white hair.

Ruby flared her aura, using the short healing sensation to allow herself to get out of bed and stumble the there feet between their beds and look at her teammate. "Weiss! Weiss!" Ruby said in a panicked tone. She shook her slightly, realizing she was still out cold, and contented herself with sinking down to her knees beside her partner's bed, grabbing the older girl's cold hand in hers, squeezing it slightly as she did so.

"Ah! I see you are awake Miss Rose" came a soft voice from the other side of the infirmary. Ruby raised her head from Weiss' still form and saw Dumbledore standing at the end of her recently vacated bed, a small package in his hands that he sat down on the foot of her bed before strolling over to the foot of her partner's. "I see Miss Schnee has yet to awaken, then again, she was far more exposed to the Dementor's aura than you were." He looked over to Ruby again, "it was a noble thing you did Miss Rose, risking your well-being for your friend's. It takes a special kind of courage to charge into the unknown with barely an idea of what danger your friends and comrades are in." Dumbledore smiled at the young leader who cocked her head to the side in curiosity.

"What do you mean? Of course I charged in, she's my teammate, my partner..." Ruby blushed slightly, "my friend. She's important to me so I did what I had to." She explained as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. This seemed to please Dumbledore as he chuckled slightly and smiled slightly more than usual as he nodded to her reply.

"Ah Ruby, you may not have known them, but you remind me so much of James and Lily. It's...refreshing to see someone who would gladly put their friends before them, even if it meant themselves' harm, it makes this old man's heart beat a little lighter knowing there are people like you out there." He looked towards the door for a second before turning back to Ruby. "It would appear Madam Pomfrey is back, I should take my leave lest she boot me out." He chuckled at his joke before motioning to the package that lay on top of her bed. "I was told by a little bird that those are one of your favorites, eat them, they'll help with the after effects of the Dementor's aura." Then, without so much as a farewell, Dumbledore turned and strode out of the infirmary, leaving Ruby alone with Weiss once again. Unable to ignore her curiosity, Ruby stood up and grabbed the package from her bed, ripping it open and smiled at the contents.

Dumbledore had brought her chocolate chip cookies.

She returned to Weiss' side and sat down next to her partner, grasping one of her hands and sat eating her cookies while shooting worried glances at the unconscious girl. She sat quietly as she looked up at Weiss, waiting for her to wake up from whatever had happened to her.

* * *

Weiss woke up in a haze, she shook her head slightly and groaned, feeling as though she'd been trampled on by a Goliath. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times to rid herself of the blurriness before stirring and moving her arms, and was surprised to feel that one of them was being held down. She turned her head to look at the obstructing party and had to pause for a moment upon seeing it was Ruby holding her hand.

Her first instinct was to pull her hand away and let her fall backwards, but the way Ruby was sitting, her head rested ever so slightly on the edge of the bed, a small drip of drool running down the corner of her mouth and one of her hands gripping Weiss' almost desperately showed she was anything but peaceful. So, instead of rudely awakening her girlfriend, Weiss sighed quietly and gave in, opting to instead ruffle the younger girl's hair, causing her to shoot up and look around helplessly until her eyes landed on Weiss' now awake form, causing her to smile widely and hug her.

"Weiss! You're awake!" She suddenly backed out of the hug, looking extremely nervous and...scared? "You're okay, aren't you?" Ruby asked almost fearfully, causing Weiss to cock her head to the side looking at her quizzically.

"Of course I am, why? What happene-" Weiss started to ask before she remembered the cold feeling, all the happiness and warmth being sucked out of the world around her as the Dementors drew closer, forcing her into a memory she didn't want to think about, let alone relive. She remembered firing her Dust, but after that, she drew a blank. "Ahh, that's why you were so worried." Weiss said simply, causing Ruby to nod sadly in response. "But wait, I know my Dust, whichever one I fired wasn't enough to run the Dementors off, who manged to get them off of me before they hurt me?" Weiss asked inquisitively. Ruby smiled slightly as she replied.

"I did!" She explained, Weiss raised a curious eyebrow at the girl, causing Ruby to hold her hands up in a placating gesture. "As it turns out, Dementors really don't like Dust for some reason, maybe it's because it's activated by aura or something, but it either hurts them or fends them off, all I know is it saved you from them, and that's all that matters!" Ruby smiled as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. Weiss smirked faintly at the girl's answer, squeezing her hand slightly in affection as she did so.

"Ruby! You're okay!" Came a bubbly boisterous voice from the entrance of the infirmary, a loud sigh of relief was heard as Yang ran to the edge of her sister's bed before she noticed Weiss and Ruby's conjoined hands and the indents of Ruby's elbows on Weiss' mattress, mixed with the slight bedhead of her little sister, Yang blinked owlishly for a couple seconds before a grin grew on her face. "Did I interrupt something?" Yang asked teasingly.

Ruby blushed.

Weiss scoffed and scowled in the girl's direction.

Yang only grinned wider at the new teasing material.

* * *

**A/N: Have a new chapter of Ruby Potter! I had to go see my niece's dance recital or I might have actually gotten this chapter out on time! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and leave a review if you have anything to say about my story, good or bad. Constructive Criticism is gladly welcomed here!**


	14. Chapter 14

Sirius hid in the Shrieking Shack, looking out of the smudged and mud caked windows as he stared up at Hogwarts, relieved to see the Dementors leaving at last. It seemed someone had finally managed to talk some sense into Minister Fudge about his recklessness. He had heard about Ruby and her friend, Rice, was it? Getting attacked by the soul sucking demons, and almost a week later they were finally being herded away from the school by a mixture of handlers and Patronuses. He sighed in relief knowing that they wouldn't harm him or more importantly, his goddaughter anymore while they were there.

Ah yes, his goddaughter, that brought him to a point that made him feel rather conflicted. On one hand, his goddaughter was here, and she seemed to be happy, especially when he'd seen the sneaky stolen kisses between Ruby and her friend. He was happy for her, and proud of her, even if she preferred that huge scythe and sniper combination to her wand, and she went by Rose instead of Potter, he would always approve of her, as that was his duty as Ruby's godfather, to support her.

Even if it didn't look like he was actually needed.

He'd seen Ruby's sister, Yang, and her uncle, Crow was it? She had a happy life, and a family, the thought made the selfish part of him inwardly sag, as he had so looked forward to raising Ruby as soon as he found a way to clear his name, even if he had to capture Bellatrix herself to do so.

Or he could find the rat, but that would be like looking for a specific piece of hay in a pile of hay. So instead, he would content himself to following her around in his animagus form, occasionally walking up to her to be petted or fed some kind of table scraps that the girl had brought out to him the other day.

He'd finally met Ruby once again four days ago as he was walking around familiarizing himself with the grounds once again and had been almost immediately petted and scratched by his goddaughter which to him was both amusing and at the same time saddening, as in order to spend time with her, he had to pretend be her pet. Which while fun for now, would quickly become boring and degrading the longer he pretended to be an actual dog.

Speaking of which, he looked at the watch he'd found on the streets of Hogsmeade and noticed it was almost time for his goddaughter to be walking around the grounds of Hogwarts, she'd probably be looking for "Drei" as well. With a small grunt, he stood up from his leaning position against the wall and transformed into Padfoot before bounding down the stairs and through the secret passage that lead out of the Whomping Willow, giving him access to the school grounds, and by extension, an easy line to Ruby.

He ran across the grounds, tongue lolling out of his mouth as he ran towards the courtyard where he had met the girl the last few days, where he would hopefully see his goddaughter sitting on a bench waiting for him. His tail involuntarily wagged faster as soon as she walked out of the castle, holding her girlfriend's hand with a big smile on her face that only grew bigger when she saw him.

"Drei!" Ruby called out happily, inadvertently dragging Weiss with her as she ran across the empty courtyard to greet the large dog she'd met a few days ago. He seemed far more intelligent than most dogs and had became attached to her almost immediately. Ruby just figured it had something to do with magic, either way it didn't make the dog any less awesome to her. "How are you boy?" She asked him, the dog responded by nuzzling his snout into the girl's hand. She smiled wider and pulled a brown paper sack from under her cloak and opened it up in front of him. The dog immediately stopped nuzzling his head into Ruby's hand and sniffed at the bag, once he realized what was in it, he laid down in front of the girl and looked at her with pleading eyes, causing Ruby to roll hers as she reached into the sack and pulled out a few pieces of bacon along with some slices of sausage and ham. The dog went at them immediately, lapping them up with his tongue and eating them quickly. He finished the food and licked Ruby's chin happily, his tail wagging so quickly it fanned up some snow behind him.

Ruby smiled at the dog before looking back up at Weiss, the same stupid grin on her face. "See Weiss? I told you he was a great dog! Granted, he's nowhere near as cool as Zwei..." if Ruby didn't know any better, she would have said the dog looked insulted, "but he's still really smart and incredibly well behaved, isn't that right Drei?" The dog wagged his tail and nodded at the girl. Weiss looked at it with a raised eyebrow.

"It's a flea ridden, dirt matted, savage looking mutt!" Weiss said as she got closer to Drei, she patted it's head hesitantly, to which the dog slowly nuzzled it's snout into the heiress' hand, causing her to smile softly as he licked the side of her hand with his tongue as she did so. "He's also adorable and loveable and he's going to live with us forever and ever! Yes he is! Yes he is!" Weiss said as the dog looked up at the girl, exuding a downright feeling of _smugness_ at Weiss' heart melting to the "dog's" charms. Weiss went back to petting him contentedly as she coughed and tried to reign in the blush on her cheeks as she attempted to look composed again.

Ruby giggled slightly next to Weiss, looking at her with a large smile. "I told you you would love him Weiss!" Ruby said happily scooting into her girlfriend as she scratched the dog's head. "See Drei? I told you she wasn't that bad." Weiss looked at her with indignation at this remark.

"That bad!? Ruby Rose are you implying I'm not bearable in some way?" Weiss asked with a slightly shrill tone. Ruby could have sworn she heard the dog laugh at her.

"What!?" Ruby asked, sounding like she was panicking at the thought of offending Weiss. "No! It was a joke Weiss!" She grabbed the heiress' free hand and smiled as she gripped it tightly, but not uncomfortably. "See?" She asked nervously, Weiss smirked at the girl's reaction, causing Ruby to sag in both embarrassment and relief. "You were joking weren't you?" She asked in a miserable tone. Weiss nodded in triumph. "You're mean, you know that?"

Weiss just smirked back at her.

Drei just looked confused, yet amused at the exchange in front of him.

Ruby _really_ needed to figure out how he did that.

* * *

_Many miles away._

"Barty?" A man with a serpent like hiss to his words asked the man kneeling in the middle of them room. "How goes the plan to bring me Ruby Potter?" His servant bowed even lower as he answered.

"Excellent, my Lord. She is advancing through the tournament nicely, even with her _muggle_ weaponry. You should have no problem dealing with her come the night of the Third Task." He said with his eyes locked onto the floor, as if so much as looking at his Master was against the rules.

"Good, good, have you been dropping hints on how to figure out the egg's riddle Barty? We would hate for Miss Potter to be...unprepared, wouldn't we?" He asked with a slight chuckle. Barty nodded quickly from his place on the floor.

"Yes my Lord, I have been "suggesting" to the mudblood Granger that she should be assisting her friend rather than hold back because of school pride, or anything as inane as that. She should be helping the girl understand the riddle soon. Your will shall be done my Lord, even if I have to Imperius the girl to do it." He stated with conviction. His Master made a sort of hissing noise in agreement.

"Of course it will Barty, or my name is not Lord Voldemort. I shall have a new body and my reign over the Wizarding World shall be supreme, you are dismissed Barty. Bellatrix! I require your assistance!" He bellowed as his loyal spy rose and left the room, moving to the side as a woman with gray eyes, curly black hair, and a gaunt frame shouldered past him into the room.

* * *

Yang watched the Dementors disappear over the horizon with a great sense of relief. When she had heard what had happened to Ruby, and what had been the cause of it, she had ran out and began shooting the demonic guards with Ember Celica, surprisingly injuring a few them as she did so. She had only stopped when her semblance ran out, and her hair had simmered down, signifying her aura's exhaustion. Now however, she was feeling elated. Her sister had a girlfriend, she was healthy again, and she was learning about her birth parents, which made Yang feel rather happy for her little sis.

Yang had spent years wondering about her mother, and still did even now, but Ruby finally had a link to the two people who had given birth to the best sister ever, it made her happy knowing James and Lily weren't just names on a piece of paper anymore.

She turned away from the window where she had been standing and ran to catch up with Hermione who she had been following/escorting to class.

"Yang, are you okay?" Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow as she focused on climbing the great staircase. Yang simply smiled and nodded, using Ember Celica to jump onto the next set of stairs.

"Of course I am! Why do you ask that 'Mione?" Yang asked as she stood on the floating staircase that was slowly making it's way back over to Hermione.

"Because, you were just staring out of the window Yang, doing nothing, when normally you're boisterous and loud. It's odd to say the least." Hermione replied as she stepped onto the staircase that Yang had flown up to.

Yang shrugged, "I was just watching the Dementors leave, even though some of them were limping." She smirked slightly at the memory of the floating demons that had clearly been favoring one side of their bodies to the other. "They're about as close to the Grimm as you get here, and they hurt my sister, so of course I was going to hurt them, seeing them actually leave makes it even better. I just wish they had left before they tried to suck out Ruby and Weiss' soul." She said, her tone going slightly darker as she mentioned last week's incident.

Hermione put a hand on her new friend's shoulder. "Yang, she's fine, she managed to somehow injure the Dementors with her weapon and run them off before their demoralizing effect overcame her, she's talented. Didn't you say Ruby got into Beacon two years earlier than anyone else?" Hermione asked with a cocked eyebrow, Yang nodded, confused as to what this had to do with anything.

"I mean, in order for that to work, she has to be extremely talented, right?" Yang nodded in a proud manner, yet was still slightly confused as to where this was going. "Then why are you so worried about her all the time?" Yang's eyes widened a bit, finally realizing what Hermione was getting at, she sagged slightly as she looked at Hermione, who looked a little ashamed to have done that to a person she could call a friend. However, Yang smiled slightly at seeing the girl's embarrassment and put a hand on the girl's hair, ruffling it in a manner not unlike what she did to Ruby.

"It's alright Hermione, you didn't know." Yang sighed sadly as she took a breath to begin her story of growing up with her sister. "You see Hermione, Ruby and I, she only had one person she called Mom, I had two, my birth mother Raven, ran out on us not long after we were born, and left Dad to raise me alone until Summer came along." Yang smiled slightly at the memory of her adoptive mother. "She came along and helped Dad raise me, and eventually the two fell in love, and Dad was happy again, he moved on from Raven and devoted himself to Summer. One night while she was out on a mission however, she found Ruby in a basket with a note attached to it on the stoop of a destroyed home. She brought her home for the night, and almost instantly fell in love with her. I don't remember much about the time since I was only three, but I do know I almost immediately accepted her as my little sister" Yang smiled at the thought of Ruby. "We grew close almost immediately, and Summer and Dad adopted her as soon as they could, assuming she'd been born outside the Kingdom in the Badlands and that the Grimm had killed her parents. So, we took her in and Summer loved her like she was her own flesh and blood, just like she loved me" Yang's smiled became slightly watery at the thought of Summer's love. She shook her head slightly to get herself back on track.

"But Summer was still a huntress, so when she wasn't baking cookies, telling us stories, or just spending time with us, she was out on a mission for the Kingdoms. She would always come back with some of the most amazing stories of her fighting off hordes of Grimm with our Uncle Qrow, or taking out smuggling rings or crime lords, it was inspiring, and it made Ruby want to become a huntress just like her." Yang took a deep breath as she stopped for a moment, but soldiered on before Hermione could say anything. "However, a huntress isn't invincible, she got killed in action not long after Ruby's fifth birthday, and it absolutely crushed Dad and Ruby. I tried to be strong for Ruby, since Dad basically shut down, so I became Ruby's protector so to speak" she laughed slightly at the thought. "After Mom died, Ruby and I did everything together, we learned how to bake, we played, I helped her with schoolwork, I was with her when Uncle Qrow unlocked her aura. We just sort of grew together, and I being the older sister, became over protective of her to the extreme. It seems silly now, but there was a time when Ruby needed me to protect her, it's just an old habit, you know? She's one of the last bits of family I have left, so I'll protect her till the end." She said, smile returning to her face as they stopped outside of Professor McGonagall's classroom.

"Well, here we are 'Mione! I'll see ya after class today, right? Blakey will meet you after this class, see you at lunch?" Yang asked, Hermione nodded quickly before she walked into class minutes before class actually started. Yang turned towards a window and looked out to see Ruby and Weiss playing with a stray dog of some kind. She smiled and jumped up onto window sill. "Hey Ruby, Weiss! Wait for me!" She called out as she hopped out of the window, propelling herself with Ember Celica to land near the three and meet the dog that Ruby had been spending so much time with the last few days.

* * *

**Author's Note: So, slightly shorter than normal, but I did manage to get another Sirius interlude in there, and some Yang Pov. I'll probably put in a team JNPR or Qrow interlude section in the next few chapters leading up to the Second task. Hope you enjoyed and I'll see ya Sunday! Merry Christmas!**


	15. Chapter 15

Qrow leaned his head against the wall of Professor Dumbledore's office, taking in what the old man was saying and trying to make sense of the situation he'd found himself in.

"And that's all I really know or can share of the situation for now, Mr. Branwen" Dumbledore said, causing Qrow to look up at the ceiling in thought.

"Call me Qrow, Mr. Branwen was my father." Qrow said nonchalantly as he tried to think. "So, let me make sure I got this straight, this Voldemort guy, he's somehow split his soul in seven different pieces?" Dumbledore nodded his confirmation, "and there was one of these things in my niece's head that came out when her aura was unlocked?" Dumbledore nodded again. "Alright, and you want me to go find and destroy them for you?" Dumbledore sighed slightly in resignation but nodded once again.

"That is unfortunately correct Qrow, the only way to rid this world of the threat of Voldemort, and the risk of your niece being used to resurrect him is to find and destroy these objects, I am sorry to pull you away from your family, but I cannot just leave the school at my leisure to hunt them down, it would leave Hogwarts open to attack, and with the Minister becoming increasingly hostile towards me, and Voldemort on the the edge of his return, I cannot run that risk, so regrettably, I must ask that the search fall to you. I have multiple memories from multiple people to help piece together the locations of them, but right now I'm afraid I only have the locations of four of what I believe are his horcruxes." Dumbledore said, sitting taller and his voice holding more authority as he went on, showing Qrow not the grandfatherly Headmaster, but one of the most powerful and respected wizards of his time. "So, will you help us Qrow?"

Qrow nodded resolutely, he was a Huntsman, it was his job to protect humanity no matter what, even if they were in an alternate dimension, and this Voldemort guy seemed like a pretty big threat to these people, not to mention a threat to his niece, meaning Qrow only had one real answer to the Headmaster's question. "Of course Professor, I'll help out. It's in my job description after all." Qrow smiled cockily, causing Professor Goodwitch to scoff from her spot a few feet away from Qrow.

"You'll be the one explaining to your nieces why even in an alternate dimension, you have to go on a mission, Qrow." Goodwitch said in her usual stern tone, causing Qrow's cocky demeanor to drop for a moment as the thought burrowed into his mind.

"Oh..." he said slowly, before coming up with an excuse. "They'll be fine! Technically they're on a mission right now, Ruby will understand, even if she won't be happy about it." Qrow said, taking a swig of fire whiskey from his new magically expanded flask, sighing happily as it burned going down his throat. Glynda raised a critical eyebrow at the man but didn't press the point, instead looking back down at her scroll, presumably writing notes of the meeting for her regular reports to Headmaster Ozpin.

"Well, you'd best get to explaining then Qrow, you've got a little over a month to find at least one or two of them before the Second Task. I'm sure Miss Rose would be less disappointed if you were there to see her participate in it." Professor Goodwitch said without looking up from her scroll. "It would probably be best if you left tonight or tomorrow morning in order to have the most amount of time on your hands, wouldn't you agree Qrow?" She asked, a single eyebrow raised causing Qrow to nod slightly in agreement, pushing himself off the wall and standing up straight as he did so.

"You're right Glynda, Ruby'd be more than a bit disappointed if I missed her participation in the second task, would make her even more depressed than usual when I leave for a mission." Qrow said as he walked towards the office door. "I'll go after that ring you showed me the location of first, and I'll be back to study those memories for the other locations as soon as the ring is in my possession." Qrow called out over his shoulder to Dumbledore before strolling down the stairs and striding out of the gargoyle towards his niece's room.

* * *

" _Accio_ pillow!" Ruby called out, pointing her wand at her bed from where she stood at the door to her bedroom.

Nothing happened.

Ruby sighed quietly as she looked up at the ceiling in defeat, she had been trying for the past hour to get the summoning charm down, but so far all she had managed to do was make the object she tried to summon rise a few inches and quiver in midair before falling down again. This magic thing was very quickly becoming more annoying to learn than it had been to learn how to use a scythe. At least when she had learned how to use her weapon, she had had faster results.

She was drawn out of her negative thinking by a strong pair of arms lifting her up in the air, and turning her around, causing her silver eyes to lock with a pair of familiar red ones, a teasing smile on his face.

"So, what's got you depressed there, squirt?" Qrow asked as he set her down and ruffled her hair playfully. Ruby pouted at the man, but stopped when she realized that like always, Qrow was immune to her puppy dog eyes.

"I suck at magic" Ruby said dejectedly as she deflated, following her Uncle into the common area of the suite, plopping unceremoniously into the couch next to her Uncle, leaning into his side as he sat down next to her. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow, a small twitch of his lips betraying the amusement he took from the moment.

"That's it?" Qrow asked with a smirk, causing Ruby to nod as she stared into the fireplace. Qrow chuckled at his niece's expense, ignoring her offended look with practiced ease before he turned to look at her. "Ruby, you remember how you were garbage with every single weapon you tried out with before I let you even touch my practice scythe?" Ruby nodded confusedly as she remembered the day her Uncle Qrow had taken her under his wing as his protege.

* * *

"Here, try the Dual Ranged Shot Gauntlets, Miss Rose." The first year's combat teacher said, handing the two collapsed Gauntlets to the girl. She put them on and twisted her arms to deploy them like Yang did Ember Celica, causing the gauntlets to unfurl into their weapon form. The teacher nodded approvingly. "Good, now aim for that target and fire." He said, pointing to the beowolf shaped target sitting on the far end of the shooting range. Ruby nodded, focusing on the target before throwing her fist forward, activating the firing mechanism, sending a Dust shell at the Beowolf, obliterating it's head.

It also sent Ruby flying into the padded walls.

The teacher sighed as Ruby collapsed the gauntlets, unbuckling them from her wrists and handing them back to the teacher before rubbing her head nervously. He simply placed them back on the table and handed Ruby a short sword with a revolver cylinder built into it.

"Try this instead, it has a revolver built into the blade, useful for close to mid-range engagements." He handed her the sword, Ruby swung it around experimentally, getting a feel for the weight as she did so. "Good, now try hitting the target with the built in gun." Ruby nodded and held the sword out, her hand on the lever shaped trigger. She fired at the target, putting a large hole in the thing's chest, but also send the sword flying out of Ruby's hands and biting into the wall next to her teacher's head.

The teacher sighed as he pulled the sword from the wall and placed it in the large discarded pile, looking at Ruby with a sad gaze. "I'm sorry Miss Rose, if you can't find a weapon that will fit your style, then I'm afraid that you'll lose your spot at Signal Academy." Ruby's eyes widened dramatically as she gasped out of shock.

"But, I want to be a Huntress! I've already discovered my semblance, and I'm top of my class in aura manipulation! There has to be a weapon I can use!" Ruby pleaded with tears leaking out of her eyes, the teacher looked away, thinking furiously before looking back to Ruby with an odd glint in his eye.

"Perhaps there is Miss Rose, your Uncle is Qrow Branwen, correct?" Ruby nodded confusedly, causing the teacher to smile slightly as he sent a message on his scroll, and looked back up to Ruby with a small smile on his face. "I believe I know just the fighting style for you, Miss Rose." Ruby cocked an eyebrow in confusion and curiosity.

"What do you mean?" She asked, the teacher merely smirked back at her.

"Just wait a few minutes Miss Rose, I do believe that he'll be here any minute now." He said before seeing the doors of the armory open, revealing the Huntsman he was looking for. "Ah, here's the man of the hour!" He announced grandly as Qrow walked in with an odd looking metal rectangle in his hands. "I see you brought what I asked you for!" Qrow nodded.

"Of course I did, can't have my niece getting kicked out cause she can't find a weapon she can use now can I?" Qrow said cockily, causing Ruby to puff out her cheeks in anger and embarrassment, Qrow merely chuckled at his niece's expression. "Ruby, this is something we don't normally do, most students at Signal are compatible with the weapons that we stock in the armory to a degree that they can forge a weapon like it and use the school's supply as practice, however, in some cases, a student needs a more personal touch than most." He held out the black rectangle to Ruby with some sort of reverence. "This is my old practice scythe, go stand away from us and hit the switch on the side to deploy it, don't worry though, it's only a practice weapon, the blade could hardly cut butter, let alone your skin." He smiled at the girl as her eyes lit up upon hearing what the object was. She nodded excitedly as she grabbed the weapon and dashed away from the two teachers, holding the rectangle carefully, before flicking the switch and causing it to unfurl dramatically.

Ruby looked at the weapon with some sort of awe, feeling it's weight in her hands as she held it in different positions before trying out a few simple slices, enjoying the feeling of the balance, her mind already working on how to customize her own scythe to make it fit her hands and style perfectly. "It's...It's perfect Uncle Qrow!" Ruby said excitedly as she sliced a few of the paper targets, using her aura to strengthen her swings and allow her to hold the weapon more effectively before she moved it around in her hands, a little awkwardly but still managed to shut it without catching her cape or her clothes in the weapon's mecha-shift rails and gears.

Qrow smiled at his niece, taking the weapon from her hands before he looked her in the eye, "I think we found you a weapon, granted you were sloppy as all hell out there, but it's far better than your other attempts according to him" he jerked his head towards the other teacher in the room, who was now writing down Ruby's choice of weapon on his scroll. "I'll be your weapons tutor from now on, we'll practice after school every day from the time you're dismissed from class to dinner time, and we'll practice all afternoon on the weekends got it?" Ruby nodded happily, causing Qrow to raise an eyebrow at the girl. "You have no idea the training I'm going to put you through, do you?" Ruby shook her head excitedly, causing Qrow to sigh before ruffling the girl's hair, much to Ruby's annoyance.

"You'll either hate me or love me more than ever when we're done Ruby, but you'll be almost as good as me by the time we're through regardless." He smirked cockily at the girl as he stood back up, holding the practice scythe under his arm. "I'll see ya after school today, I'll be sure to tell Tai that you'll be late for supper!" He called out over his shoulder with a teasing tone in his voice as he left the armory, leaving a confused Ruby in his wake.

* * *

"Yeah...but what's that got to do with me learning magic Uncle Qrow? I don't think I have an awesome magic using relative that can run me ragged in lessons until I want to collapse in exhaustion." Qrow smiled mysteriously at the girl in question causing her to cock an eyebrow in curiosity. "Do I?" She asked confusedly, causing Qrow to chuckle slightly at the girl's expense.

"He's not a blood relative, but then again, neither am I." He said mysteriously before pulling out a picture Dumbledore had given him earlier before he'd been given the mission to hunt down this Voldemort guy's horcruxes. The picture was yellowed around the edges from age and was clearly a wizarding photograph due to the moving people in it. Qrow showed it to his niece, the picture having her birth parents at their wedding, smiling at the camera before James kissed his wife and threw his arms around the two other men in the frame, an aristocratic looking man with black curly hair, and a rather unkempt looking man, who looked happy for his friend, but had a tired look in his eye that spoke of some kind of trouble for the man. Qrow pointed at the tired looking one, and drew Ruby's attention to him, as she'd found herself drawn into trying to identify the people in the picture. "That's Remus Lupin, he was one of your birth father's best friends according to Dumbledore, he's also a heck of a wizard, you should try to contact him for help, according to Dumbledore he just sort of dropped off the map after last year when he taught the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Might be worth it to try to contact him, see if he'll teach ya." He explained as he looked up at his niece, who looked far more interested in the man now, and nodded happily. If he could teach her magic, that would be amazing! Even better that he could also talk to her about her birth parents, a subject Ruby had been very curious about recently.

"I'll try Uncle Qrow, it would be nice to be able to actually use this stuff. I can still only cast healing spells and a few of the first year charms." Ruby groaned as she leaned further into her Uncle. "It's soooo annoying!" She whined out, causing her Uncle to laugh at the girl's misfortune.

"Well, I hope you can get in contact with him then" Qrow smiled at the girl before finally getting to the real reason he was here. "Now Ruby, I'm afraid I didn't come here to tell ya to contact this Remus character, I've got a bit of disappointing news for ya kid." Qrow said slowly, causing Ruby to look up at him curiously.

"You're going on a mission, aren't you Uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked, an oddly neutral expression on her face. Qrow nodded at her guess.

"Yup, this Voldemort guy is apparently trying to come back with some kind of dark magic or whatever, sounded like something out of a storybook to me, but I'm a Huntsman Ruby, and even in an alternate dimension it's our job to protect all the people in the world, even if it's not ours." He said with a slight sigh. Ruby nodded at the man's explanation.

"I understand, you'll be back in time for the Second Task won't you?" Ruby asked curiously, Qrow smirked at the girl, ruffling her hair as he did so.

"I better be! What do you take me for, an amateur?" Qrow asked rhetorically, causing Ruby to smile. "I'll be cheering ya on from the stands Ruby, don't you worry about me, got it?" Qrow said.

"When are you leaving?" She asked, Qrow's smirk dipped slightly.

"Tonight, I've got everything I need, map, supplies, Dust, and plenty of extra ammunition, I'll be back in time for your second task though, I promise." Qrow winked down at the girl as he got up, dusting his clothes off as he did so. "I'll see ya in a month squirt!" Qrow said as he leaned back down and hugged the girl, Ruby returned it happily.

"Bye Uncle Qrow! Be careful!" Ruby said to him as he headed for the door, Qrow looked over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow.

"Aren't I always?"

Ruby smiled as her Uncle left the room before her attention was grabbed by the photo now sitting on the end table. She picked it up and headed for her desk in her bedroom.

She had a letter to write.

* * *

**AN: So, not a lot happened this chapter unfortunately, I only had about a day or so to get this out, with Christmas Eve, and Day and me hanging out with my friend yesterday and seeing Star Wars Episode VII (Which is amazing and you should go see it like right now!). However, I am introducing probably the last of the characters that knew James and Lily Potter that are on Ruby's side at least. Plus, more Drunkle Qrow!**

**Yes, I am having Qrow hunt down Horcruxes, I think he would totally do it, especially considering how Voldemort is obsessed with killing his niece, even if he doesn't know or believe the whole story behind it. Expect more Qrow PoV in the future though, as shit's about to go down now that Qrow is off doing important stuff for Dumbledore.**

**Hope you guys had an awesome Christmas**


	16. Chapter 16

Qrow jumped out of the way of _yet another_ attack from the odd magical creature in front of him, the chimera growling ferally as it missed another shot at it's prey. Qrow pulled his weapons from his back, blocking the next hit with his massive blade and swung it at the animal, cutting the razor sharp claws, and part of it's toes, off of the animal.

Qrow smirked as his sword began transforming, the gears in the hilt spinning as the sword bent downwards, revealing two barrels that he pointed at the head of the shocked, and now wounded, creature, ending it's life with a round of Dust between it's eyes.

He let his sword fold back up, placing it on his back before he ran his hand through his now unkempt hair, fixing it slightly as he stared at the run down shack in front of him. According to Dumbledore, this had been Voldemort's mother's house, where Merope Gaunt had been born and raised along with her brothers. It would make sense for him to hide one of his horcruxes here, Qrow supposed, especially if it was the Gaunt family ring.

Of course that involved actually getting inside the shack, and that chimera had been the fourth, and hopefully last, magical creature barring him entrance. Qrow walked up to the door of the shack, staring at the dead snake that was nailed to the door. Qrow rolled his eyes at the odd choice of decor and kicked the door down with an aura infused leg, sending the ruined door sailing through the air and into the back wall of the small shack.

Qrow carefully began walking through the room, a hand on the comfortable weight of his weapon at all times, ready for an attack at any moment, stepping carefully and avoiding the multiple loose floorboards like they were the plague. He infused his legs with aura, jumping up to the small second floor loft rather than risk triggering a trap that was set on the steps and cast out his aura, feeling for the presence of another soul.

He almost doubled over in disgust upon feeling the horrible presence of the soul fragment he was after, it was practically radiating malice and ill intent. Qrow steeled himself and walked in the direction of the dark feelings, studiously ignoring the stomach rending effects of said emotions.

It didn't take him long to find the horcrux after he latched onto it with his aura, stopping in front of a floorboard that looked slightly looser than the others and lifting it up to reveal a small box with what he had learned from Dumbledore to be the Slytherin family's insignia. He shook the box slightly and heard the ring rattle around in it's box, causing the Huntsman to grunt contentedly as he put it in an empty bag hanging off his waist.

What? He wasn't an idiot, he wasn't about to go and open the damn thing, who knew what it would do to him?

Besides, it wasn't like he could really destroy it anyways. Dust might be able to damage Dementors somehow, but he wasn't about to bet that Aura could really do anything to a horcrux. Especially if they tried to exert their influence over their hosts like Dumbledore had warned him about.

Qrow smirked slightly as he finally emerged from the small opening in the unkempt hedges, walking back onto the dirt road that lead past the secret entrance to the Gaunt house, finally grabbing his flask from his hip for the first time that day and taking a large swig Ogden's Finest as a reward for his work, letting out a satisfied sigh as the whiskey caused a small flame to come out of his mouth.

Now he just had to get back to Hogwarts and give this damned thing to Dumbledore, the sooner he got rid of it, the better.

* * *

"Are you sure this is one of them Qrow?" The wizened old Headmaster asked, looking curiously at the ring sitting in the box. He felt a strange attraction to whatever was inside it, but was working hard at restraining it. There was no telling just what exactly would happen if he were to put it on after all, it was surely booby trapped by multiple unpleasant curses.

The Huntsman nodded, trying to ignore the aura of negative emotions surrounding the ring, it was a good thing this didn't exist on Remnant, Grimm would be gathering around it for _miles_. "Yeah, I'm sure, it's the only thing in that house that made me feel physically ill. We should destroy that as soon as possible, if it makes me feel ill, imagine what it would do to Yang and Ruby's friends." Qrow smirked slightly as the image passed in his head. "I don't think you want to see what it would do to them." He chuckled slightly. Dumbledore simply nodded serenely.

"Very well Qrow, come, we'll go to a safe place and dispose of this item safely" he rose from his chair and pulled a small bauble off his shelf, tapping it with his wand and muttering " _portus_ " before reaching it out to Qrow who put a finger on it hesitantly. With the feeling of being hooked behind his navel, Qrow and Dumbledore left the Headmaster's office and reappeared out in a small field in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere.

"Where are we?" Qrow asked curiously. "Because it seems like we're in the middle of nowhere."

Dumbledore merely nodded and placed the box down in front of him, backing away as he motioned for Qrow to do so as well. "We are in the middle of nowhere Qrow, that was my intention when I brought us here, it's one of the safer places to destroy this abomination, it reduces the chance of a muggle seeing us, and the collateral of damage of the destruction method."

"The method of destruction is _that_ unstable?" Qrow asked with a raised eyebrow, Dumbledore merely nodded.

"As you will see in just a moment," Dumbledore said, gouging trenches around the box before taking a deep breath and aiming his wand at the box. "Ready?" Dumbledore asked, his eyes never leaving where he aimed his wand. Qrow nodded confusedly out of the corner of the headmaster's eye. "Very well then, _Fiendfyre!"_ He incanted, causing a large torrent of flame to come flying out of the wand, turning into all manners of creatures as they pranced around the field, devouring everything in it's path.

A dragon flew just above the ground, burning the grass in it's path as a chimera stood staring at the box containing the horcrux as though it were a toy before jumping atop it and consuming the container in flames, rolling around contentedly atop it just as it fell apart and a loud piercing screech filled the air.

At the sound of the Horcrux's death, Dumbledore muttered an obscenely long incantation under his breath, causing the fiendfyre to dissolve into the air, leaving smoldering ashes in it's wake, as though a wild fire had simply started out of nowhere before simply deciding it wasn't worth the effort and snuffed itself out.

"You weren't kidding." Qrow said in some sort of awe, causing Dumbledore to nod and smile serenely.

"Fiendfyre, it's a dark spell, but besides the use of Basilisk venom, it's the only way to destroy Voldemort's soul anchors." Dumbledore pulled the bauble back out of his robes, turning it back into a portkey before holding it out before Qrow once again. After only a moment's hesitation, Qrow grabbed a hold of it and the two were whisked away to Hogwarts once again.

* * *

"I really only had to ask you, Hermione?" Ruby asked with a bit of a slacked jaw, she'd known that Hermione would help her, but Weiss had been so adamant that she would refuse because of some kind of school pride over friendship. However that had been disproven when after the last two and a half months of studying and looking for a solution, Ruby had finally gotten fed up with her partner's cynicism and simply asked. She'd felt a little surprised, and more than a little smug, when she'd helped her find books on the subject of different magical languages and almost immediately found the answer.

It was Mermish, the language of the Mermaids.

"Of course you did Ruby" Hermione said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I would put your safety and knowledge ahead of my petty school pride any day, especially since most of the people here see me as some sort of insufferable know it all, or just a simple dirty _mudblood_." Hermione spit the word as though it physically hurt her to say it. "You however, actually like me, so I will gladly help you, all you need to do is ask." Hermione smiled at Ruby, causing Ruby's look of confusion to morph into an innocent smile as well.

"Thanks Hermione!" Ruby said happily, glomping Hermione and laughing as she did so. After a few moments, she disengaed from the hug and smiled up at the girl. "Want to come hear the clue with me then?" She asked excitedly, Hermione nodded with a smile on her face as Ruby grabbed her hand and started dragging her towards the Hogwarts grounds. "Come on then!" She said excitedly.

The two reached the Black Lake rather quickly, and after Hermione cast a warming charm on the two of them, she placed the egg in deep enough water that she could dunk her head under and fully submerge the egg as well. "Ready?" Ruby asked Hermione, getting a nod in return. "Here goes then." Ruby said as she set the egg in the water before dunking her head under with Hermione.

_"Come seek us where our voices sound,_

_We cannot sing above the ground,_

_And while you're searching ponder this;_

_We've taken what you'll sorely miss,_

_An hour long you'll have to look,_

_And to recover what we took,_

_But past an hour, the prospect's black,_

_Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."_

Ruby closed the egg and stood up out of the water, shaking her head to get most of it out of her hair as she ran back to shore. "I wonder what that means?" She asked, even as Hermione cast a drying charm on the two of them before quickly scribbling down the hint on a piece of parchment with her self inking quill.

"Well," Hermione began as she nodded in content at the correctly transcribed hint on the parchment. "We know that this is Mermish, meaning that "We cannot sing above the ground means underwater." Hermione gestured to the Blake Lake for reference, "So, you'll most likely be underwater for the Second Task. "And while you're searching ponder this; We've taken what you'll sorely miss." Hermione recited, "That means that you'll be searching for something, something that you obviously value, most likely an object of some kind." She noticed Ruby grabbed her cape tightly at this, she chuckled slightly at the motion. "An hour long you'll have to look, and to recover what we took. So the task is timed, which means you'll probably be awarded points based on how long it takes you to find it." She took a breath at the last two lines, as if just realizing what they meant. "But past an hour, the prospect's black, too late, it's gone, it won't come back. So, if you take longer than an hour, then you lose the item, and you're disqualified." Hermione said, noticing Ruby holding her cape in a death grip at this. Hermione sighed at the girl's over protectiveness of the item.

"So, I have to go underwater and find "What I dearly miss" in an hour or less, huh?" Ruby said aloud, causing Hermione to nod. "Well, how am I going to breathe underwater for an hour? I can't cast a spell to do it, because I am absolutely terrible at magic." She paused to think, not noticing Hermione doing the same. "Oh! I got it! What are those little things people use when diving, that aren't scuba tanks?" Ruby asked her companion curiously. Hermione raised an eyebrow at the girl.

"A re breather?" Hermione asked, to which Ruby nodded excitedly.

"Yeah! One of those! Do you know where I can get one? It would be so much more useful than some weird spell I won't be able to cast within two weeks." Ruby said, sounding rather defeated as she mentioned her inefficiency with magic.

"I know there's a scuba supply store in London, I'm sure you'll find something there, you'll just have to get permission to leave the school, which with you being a champion shouldn't be too hard, especially since you're preparing yourself for the next task." Hermione answered, secretly plotting to ambush the girl with her old magic textbooks and tutor her relentlessly. She was brought out of her thoughts on how to schedule tutoring sessions by Ruby glomping her once again.

"Thank you 'Mione, you're the best!" Ruby squealed excitedly.

" 'Mione?" Hermione asked curiously, Ruby rubbed the back of her head nervously.

"It's a nickname! It's easier than saying Hermione, and it sounds really nice!" Ruby's eyes widened as she realized what she had said. "Not that your regular name isn't beautiful! It is! I like it a lot, it rolls off the tongue and everything, I just thought you'd like a nickname, because my friends call me Rubes, we all call Weiss different stuff, and Blake gets called Blakey a lot, so I figured you'd like to have one as well. But it's okay if you don't like it! I promise!" Ruby said this all very fast and in a single breath. Hermione smiled at the girl's nervousness, she simply wrapped her in an equally strong hug and nodded.

"I love it Ruby! It's perfect!" Hermione said happily.

It felt good to have friends like Ruby.

* * *

"Wormtail! How goes the progress of getting the Potter brat through the tasks of the tournament!" A voice hissed from it's position in a small cradle.

The aforementioned man whimpered slightly as he bowed in front of the cradle, careful to not raise his eyes above the legs, lest he be tortured once again. "I-It g-goes w-well m-my Lord." The pitiful man stuttered away in front of him. "S-She j-just f-f-figured o-out the cl-clue t-to the second task. I-If s-she d-doesn't h-h-have a st-st-strategy i-in p-place b-by n-next w-week, I-I'll t-tell B-Barty t-to f-find a w-way t-to s-suggest s-something." He stuttered his way through the sentence, raising his head just enough so that the carpeted floors didn't absorb his report. He waited in a tense (to him anyways) silence, awaiting his master's verdict, hoping it didn't end in a Cruciatus once again.

"Hmm, I see, very good Wormtail! Be sure to report the possible need for a suggestion to Barty!" The being in the cradle hissed out. "We'll need him to have a sample ready. You are dismissed!" The man stood up and started to scurry out of the room with his head down, shoulders slightly less tense than usual. "Oh one more thing Wormtail!" It called out. His servant turned around to be addressed once more. " _Crucio!"_

* * *

**A/N:** **So, here we are again, I apologize for not having an update on Wednesday, but with Christmas being over, and my school starting back soon, I needed to take the majority of my free time to study and work, I'll try to get back to the more regular two a week updates soon, hopefully by no later than the Wednesday after next. Until next chapter**


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